Staccato: A Trial of CD4 Guided Treatment Interruption, Compared to Continuous Treatment, for HIV Infection
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2005-10-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Treatment of HIV repairs the immune system, but continuous treatment is expensive and causes
side effects. Would it not be better to treat intermittently, e.g. stop treatment when the
immune system has recovered, and start again only when damage reappears? That is the question
which STACCATO proposes to answer.
Approximately 500 patients were recruited for this trial from 2002 to 2004. One third were
treated continuously; in two thirds, the treatment was interrupted whenever the CD4 count, a
measure of immune recovery, exceeded 350. At the end of 2005, the two treatment groups will
be compared in order to see which fared better regarding amount of drugs used, side effects,
CD4 counts, and development of resistance to treatment.