Skip to content

Intralesional Injection of STS in Treatment of Calcinosis

An Open Label Evaluation of Intralesional Injection of Sodium Thiosulfate in the Treatment of Cutaneous or Tendon Calcinosis in Connective Tissue Disease

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06672822
Acronym
STSINJ
Enrollment
20
Registered
2024-11-04
Start date
2025-03-17
Completion date
2029-05-01
Last updated
2026-05-05

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Calcinosis, Dermatomyositis, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), Systemic Sclerosis (SSc)

Keywords

calcinosis

Brief summary

The specific objective of this study is to perform a small, open-label study to assess the safety and efficacy of intralesional, subcutaneous injection of STS on calcinosis symptoms and lesion size in systemic sclerosis (SSc), mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) and dermatomyositis (DM) patients. Injection will be guided by ultrasound, lesion size assessed by ultrasound, and symptom burden by patient-reported outcome measures.

Detailed description

Calcinosis is a condition in which calcium builds up in the skin and tissue under the skin. It develops in ∼30% of adult dermatomyositis,18%-49% of systemic sclerosis patients, 25-40% of patients with limited systemic sclerosis. There is no standard treatment recommended by physicians currently. Many treatments have been tested, all with limited benefits and without good evidence that any are effective. They are, based only on single cases or small numbers of patients in studies called "case series." But in some cases, these agents may be effective. There are several case series that have shown the effectiveness of injecting a chemical compound called sodium thiosulfate (or "STS") into calcinosis lesions. There was some improvement in terms of pain control, and a decrease in size and resolution of the calcinosis. The aim of our study is to test intralesional sodium thiosulfate (STS) injection for symptoms relief of calcinosis. STS has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for certain conditions related to childhood cancers. It has not been approved by the FDA to treat calcinosis. The specific aims of this study are to assess change in calcinosis size and quality-of-life measures.

Interventions

Depending on the size of the calcinosis lesion, 1-5ml of STS (250mg/ml) will be used for injection under ultrasound guidance.

Sponsors

Robyn T. Domsic, MD, MPH
Lead SponsorOTHER
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
CollaboratorNIH

Study design

Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE

Intervention model description

Open label, single-arm, single center US study

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Clinical diagnosis of systemic sclerosis, mixed connective tissue disease or inflammatory myopathy * Must be over 18 years of age * Participants must be competent to give informed consent * Participants must have radiographic evidence (xray or ultrasound) of calcinosis. * Participants must need symptomatic relief

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant women will be excluded

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Primary endpoint: Change in size of calcinosis lesion from baseline to 12 weeks12 weeksChange in size of calcinosis lesions will be measured by x-ray at baseline and then again at 12 weeks.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in pain (interference)up to 12 weeksWe will evaluate pain impact on quality-of-life using the PROMIS® (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) Pain Interference Short Form 4a. This is a 4-question patient-reported outcome measure asking patients about their experience in the last week. Responses are in a likert scale format from 'not at all' to 'very much' Higher scores indicate higher degrees of interference with important aspects of life. The raw score is converted to a T-score with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation (SD) of 10.
Change in Pain Intensityup to 12 weeksWe will measure pain intensity using the PROMIS® Pain Intensity 3a scale. This is a 30-item questionnaire inquiring about pain over the last week. Higher scores indicate higher pain intensity. Raw scores are converted to a T-score for analysis. The t-score is set to a mean of 50 and a standard deviation (SD) of 10.
Health-related Quality of Life using the EQ-5D-5Lup to 12 weeksEuroQol(EQ)-5D-5L is a validated self-reported patient questionnaire assessing five domains of health quality: pain/discomfort, mobility, self-care, activity and anxiety/depression plus a patient global assessment visual analog scale (VAS). Patients can report no, some problems or extreme problems (scored 1-3); the VAS is scored 0-100. Iull health is a score of 1 and values below zero are regarded as a state worse than death.
Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire (SHAQ)up to 12 weeksThe SHAQ is composed of the standard Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ-DI)) plus additional visual analog scales to measure symptoms important in scleroderma: vascular, digital ulcers, lung, gastrointestinal, pain and patient global assessment. The HAQ-DI questions are scored 0-3. Higher scores indicate greater disability.
Change in calcinosis related symptom severityup to 12 weeksThe Mawdsley calcinosis scale consists of Part A and Part B. Part A asks about presence of calcinosis or ulcers overlying calcinosis. If the response is present, then Part B is completed. Part B consists of 17 questions inquiring over the last 2 weeks of symptoms. Responses are 0-10 from no limitation/not all to maximum/worst possible. Higher scores indicate higher symptom severity from calcinosis.

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTMaureen M Laffoon, BS
laffoonm@pitt.edu412-648-7874
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORRobyn T Domsis, MD

University of Pittsburgh

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: May 6, 2026