HUG to Lead a Major Trial Testing Cell Therapy for Advanced Heart Failure
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Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) has received over CHF 1 million from the Swiss National Science Foundation to take part in RenuHEART, an international phase III trial that uses patients’ own bone marrow cells to treat heart failure.
Heart failure affects more than 26 million people worldwide, including over 100,000 in Switzerland. Patients whose disease is advanced and who still have symptoms despite treatment have very few options left.
RenuHEART aims to give them one. Doctors collect bone marrow cells from the patient, stimulate them, and inject them back directly into the coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle. UK teams have been developing this approach for about ten years, and earlier trials have shown encouraging results. The phase III trial will test whether it is safe and effective in a larger group of patients, looking at prognosis, heart function and quality of life.
The project is funded through a joint call by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Total funding exceeds CHF 6 million, of which CHF 1,045,803 goes to the HUG. Prof. Anthony Mathur of Barts Heart Centre in London leads the study overall. Dr Juan F. Iglesias of the HUG Cardiology Department is the Swiss principal investigator.
Several Swiss cardiology departments are taking part. All Swiss patients assigned to receive the therapy will be treated at the HUG. The trial is open to adults with advanced heart failure who remain symptomatic despite available treatments and have no other therapeutic option.
“This study marks an important step in evaluating a new therapeutic approach,” says Dr Iglesias.
The HUG team also includes Prof. Philippe Meyer (Cardiology), Prof. Jean Villard (cell therapy and transplantation laboratory), Prof. Yves Chalandon (Haematology) and Dr Dulce Alfaiate (HUG-UNIGE Clinical Research Centre).
➡️ Source: HUG | 📸 ©Dr Juan F. Iglesias, HUG