# TELESTO

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/telesto/  
OnCo record `telesto` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

TELESTO is the only placebo-controlled trial of removing excess iron in people with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndrome who depend on blood transfusions; the chelator deferasirox lengthened the time before heart or liver damage, progression to leukaemia or death by about a year.

## Summary

TELESTO was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial run by Novartis in 225 patients with low- or intermediate-1-risk myelodysplastic syndrome and iron overload from repeated red cell transfusions. Patients received deferasirox, an oral iron chelator with no record in this corpus, or placebo. The primary endpoint was event-free survival, a composite of non-fatal cardiac and hepatic events, progression to acute myeloid leukaemia and death. Recruitment was slow and the design was reduced from a phase 3 to a phase 2 trial.

Median event-free survival in the registry results was 1,440 days with deferasirox against 1,091 days with placebo, a hazard ratio of 0.636, and the difference was statistically significant. The trial is the randomised evidence behind iron chelation for transfusional iron overload on the corpus's myelodysplastic syndrome page.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: positive
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Also known as: CICL670A2302
- Tags: soc-trials
- Registry id: NCT00940602
- Phase: 2
- Setting: Low- or intermediate-1-risk myelodysplastic syndrome with transfusional iron overload: the oral iron chelator deferasirox or placebo (double-blind), with event-free survival as the primary endpoint
- Sponsor: Novartis Pharmaceuticals
- Enrolled: 225
- Result: Median event-free survival 1,440 days with deferasirox against 1,091 days with placebo (hazard ratio 0.636, p 0.015).
- Outcomes: Event-free survival (non-fatal cardiac or hepatic event, progression to acute myeloid leukaemia, or death): Deferasirox 1440 days vs Placebo 1091 days, HR 0.636

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00940602: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00940602
- ClinicalTrials.gov results: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT00940602?tab=results

## Connected records

- cancers: [Lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes](https://onco.cc/cancers/mds-lower-risk/), [Myelodysplastic syndromes / neoplasms (MDS)](https://onco.cc/cancers/mds/)
- companies: [Novartis](https://onco.cc/companies/novartis/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/telesto.json