Long-term outcome of adjunctive celecoxib treatment after paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation for the complex coronary lesions: two-year clinical follow-up of COREA-TAXUS trial.

BACKGROUND In the COREA-TAXUS trial ("Effect of Celecoxib On REstenosis after coronary Angioplasty with a TAXUS stent"), celecoxib reduced late luminal loss and adverse cardiac events at follow-up around 6 months. The objective of this study was to assess the long-term outcome of short-term adjunctive celecoxib treatment after paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation. METHODS AND RESULTS This is a 2-year clinical follow-up of the COREA-TAXUS trial, an open-label randomized controlled study. A total 274 patients were randomized to receive or not receive celecoxib (400 mg before the intervention and 200 mg twice daily for 6 months after the procedure), and 271 underwent successful paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation. All patients were given aspirin (100 mg daily indefinitely) and clopidogrel (75 mg daily for at least 6 months). Among the 271 patients, 267 (98.5%) completed the 2-year clinical follow-up. From the previous follow-up to 2 years, there was no difference in the rate of adverse cardiac events between the celecoxib and control groups (1.6% versus 4.3%, P=0.27). Thus, at 2 years, the rate of adverse cardiac events was consistently lower in the celecoxib group (6.9% versus 19.7%, P=0.002). A significant reduction in need for target lesion revascularization was observed (6.2% versus 18.2%, P=0.003). The efficacy benefit in the celecoxib group was not undermined by an increased risk for cardiac death or myocardial infarction at 2 years (1.5% versus 1.4%). CONCLUSIONS Six-month adjunctive celecoxib treatment after paclitaxel-eluting stent implantation was associated with durable long-term efficacy up to 2 years. However, the inconclusive evidence for the long-term safety of this treatment warrants caution. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT 00292721.