The results of an important tuberculosis study that involved staff from The Aurum Institute’s Clinical Research Division (CRD), has been published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal.
The article is titled: Biomarker-guided tuberculosis preventive therapy (CORTIS): a randomised controlled trial. It is co-authored, amongst others, by Aurum’s Dr Craig Innes- Clinical Director: CRD, Dr William Brumskine- Clinical Research Site Leader: Rustenburg, and Professor Gavin Churchyard- Aurum Group Chief Executive Officer. Additional credit for the paper goes to the CORTIS-01 study teams which included more than 50 Aurum research staff members from the Rustenburg and Klerksdorp Clinical Research Sites.
Innes said the study was conducted over two years at five sites in South Africa, with the two Aurum sites screening more than 6000 potential participants out of 20 207 screened across the study.
“The study sought to show if giving TB preventative therapy (TPT) to those who were COR test positive, would significantly reduce the incidence of TB disease in this group compared to the group who were COR test negative,” he said. “Unfortunately, provision of TPT in the COR test positive group did not significantly reduce progression to TB disease over 15 months, however, the study confirmed that the COR test was able to discriminate between individuals with existing tuberculosis disease
or progression to new tuberculosis disease, and individuals who remained healthy.”
As a contribution to TB prevention, Innes said the study confirms the success of the COR test in identifying patients who are likely to develop TB disease.
