Emulation of the control cohort of a randomized controlled trial in pediatric kidney transplantation with Real-World Data from the CERTAIN Registry

Background Randomized controlled trials in pediatric kidney transplantation are hampered by low incidence and prevalence of kidney failure in children. Real-World Data from patient registries could facilitate the conduct of clinical trials by substituting a control cohort. However, the emulation of a control cohort by registry data in pediatric kidney transplantation has not been investigated so far. Methods In this multicenter comparative analysis, we emulated the control cohort (n = 54) of an RCT in pediatric kidney transplant patients (CRADLE trial; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01544491) with data derived from the Cooperative European Paediatric Renal Transplant Initiative (CERTAIN) registry, using the same inclusion and exclusion criteria (CERTAIN cohort, n = 554). Results Most baseline patient and transplant characteristics were well comparable between both cohorts. At year 1 posttransplant, a composite efficacy failure end point comprising biopsy-proven acute rejection, graft loss or death (5.8%+/- 3.3% vs. 7.5%+/- 1.1%, P = 0.33), and kidney function (72.5 +/- 24.9 vs. 77.3 +/- 24.2 mL/min/1.73 m(2) P = 0.19) did not differ significantly between CRADLE and CERTAIN. Furthermore, the incidence and severity of BPAR (5.6% vs. 7.8%), the degree of proteinuria (20.2 +/- 13.9 vs. 30.6 +/- 58.4 g/mol, P = 0.15), and the key safety parameters such as occurrence of urinary tract infections (24.1% vs. 15.5%, P = 0.10) were well comparable. Conclusions In conclusion, usage of Real-World Data from patient registries such as CERTAIN to emulate the control cohort of an RCT is feasible and could facilitate the conduct of clinical trials in pediatric kidney transplantation.

Automated summary

This study investigated whether patient registries could be used to emulate control cohorts in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for pediatric kidney transplantation. The results showed that there were no significant differences in various outcome measures between the emulated control cohort and the actual control cohort of the RCT. Therefore, the usage of Real-World Data from patient registries could facilitate the conduct of clinical trials in pediatric kidney transplantation.