{"entity":{"id":"ample","kind":"trial","name":"AMPLE","aka":["Australasian Malignant Pleural Effusion trial"],"tldr":"Asked the question that matters to someone with months to live, how many days will I spend in hospital, and found the home drain wins by about three.","summary":"AMPLE recruited from nine centres in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong between July 2012 and October 2014 and randomised 146 patients with symptomatic malignant pleural effusion to an indwelling pleural catheter (74) or talc pleurodesis (72), minimised by malignancy (mesothelioma against others) and trapped lung, stratified by region and followed for twelve months. Two withdrew before the intervention. Median age was 70.5 years and 56.2 percent were male.\n\nThe catheter group spent significantly fewer days in hospital: median 10.0 days (interquartile range 3 to 17) against 12.0 (7 to 21), p=0.03, Hodges-Lehmann estimate of difference 2.92 days (95 percent confidence interval 0.43 to 5.84). Breathlessness and quality of life did not differ.\n\nTogether with TIME2, AMPLE settled the argument: neither method controls symptoms better, so the choice turns on how much hospital time a patient is willing to spend, whether the lung re-expands, and whether there is someone at home able to drain the catheter. A patient with a trapped lung cannot be pleurodesed at all and needs the catheter.","status":"positive","asOf":"2026-09-25","links":[{"label":"AMPLE (JAMA 2017)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.17426"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["nsclc","sclc","lung-cancer","pleural-mesothelioma"],"sections":[],"technologies":["palliative-care"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["palliative-treatment","pleural-effusion","quality-of-life"],"trials":["time2"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"phase":"3","setting":"Symptomatic malignant pleural effusion without previous catheter or pleurodesis: indwelling pleural catheter versus talc pleurodesis, with total days in hospital from procedure to death or twelve months as the primary endpoint","sponsor":"Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth","result":"Median total hospital days 10.0 against 12.0 (p=0.03, difference 2.92 days); breathlessness and quality of life equivalent.","yearReported":2017,"enrolled":146,"enrolledBasis":"registry","outcomes":[{"endpoint":"Total days in hospital to death or 12 months (median)","primary":true,"unit":"days","arms":[{"name":"Indwelling pleural catheter","n":74,"value":10},{"name":"Talc pleurodesis","n":72,"value":12}],"p":"0.03","source":"https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.17426"}],"replication":"Consistent with TIME2, which found equivalent breathlessness control and fewer hospital days with the catheter."},"route":"/trials/ample/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"lung-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Lung cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/lung-cancer/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"},{"id":"pleural-mesothelioma","kind":"cancer","name":"Pleural mesothelioma","route":"/cancers/pleural-mesothelioma/"},{"id":"sclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/sclc/"}],"technology":[{"id":"palliative-care","kind":"technology","name":"Early integrated palliative care","route":"/technologies/palliative-care/"}],"term":[{"id":"pleural-effusion","kind":"term","name":"Malignant pleural effusion and ascites","route":"/terms/pleural-effusion/"},{"id":"lung-palliation-breathlessness-effusion-obstruction","kind":"term","name":"Palliation in lung cancer: breathlessness, pleural effusion, blocked airway, bone and brain","route":"/terms/lung-palliation-breathlessness-effusion-obstruction/"},{"id":"palliative-treatment","kind":"term","name":"Palliative","route":"/terms/palliative-treatment/"},{"id":"quality-of-life","kind":"term","name":"Quality of life","route":"/terms/quality-of-life/"}],"trial":[{"id":"time2","kind":"trial","name":"TIME2","route":"/trials/time2/"}]}}