A rationale for dedicated trials of combination therapy in heart failure

Abstract

As heart failure (HF) enters a new era with high level of evidence supporting the use of individual drug therapies, we put forth a rationale for the need for dedicated investigation of the safety, tolerability, and practicalities associated with combination medical therapy. Being able to tailor therapies via combination approaches might offer a way to maximize benefits of available therapies and also facilitate compliance. The evidentiary bar to support multi-drug regimens should be raised in HF for a variety of reasons: (1) Pivotal HF randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to date have not traditionally tested and proven safety and efficacy of drug combinations, (2) HF patients have variable disease trajectories, (3) There is hesitancy by clinicians and patients to using multiple drugs and such trials may build confidence in their use, and (4) HF therapies have overlapping side effects. Similar to combination therapies being developed and tested in adjacent fields of medicine, HF care too would greatly benefit from dedicated investigations of combination treatment approaches. Personalizing precision medicine with combination therapies has the potential to further improve outcomes and facilitate optimal implementation of disease-modifying therapies in HF.

Keywords: Clinical trials; Combination therapy; Heart failure.

Figure 1

Rationale for trials of combination therapy in heart failure. The evidentiary bar to support multi-drug regimens should be raised in heart failure for a variety of reasons: (i) pivotal heart failure randomized controlled trials to date have not traditionally tested and proved safety and efficacy of drug combinations, (ii) heart failure patients have variable disease trajectory, (iii) there is hesitancy by clinicians and patients in using multiple drugs, and (iv) heart failure therapies have overlapping side effects.