Historic achievement for international penile cancer trial--100 patients enrolled thus far, the most ever to a prospective study for treatment of an extremely rare disease

(Press-News.org) Cancer of the penis is not a subject that comes up in conversation. When it does, one common response is, “I didn’t know you could get cancer there.” Not only is it not spoken about, but it is also rare, with fewer than one case per 100,000 men diagnosed in developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom per year. That rarity has meant far fewer clinical trials have been developed and conducted to guide its treatment, and in most cases, only small numbers of patients have been included. Fortunately, researchers from both sides of the Atlantic are working on a once-in-a-generation study to properly answer some key questions.

That trial, called InPACT (International Penile Advanced Cancer Trial), has just recruited its 100th patient. This is a historic achievement—the largest number of patients ever recruited to a single prospective clinical trial in this disease space. But there is more to be done; the total number of patients planned for the study is 200. The team behind this work hopes that additional regional sites and countries will be able to join in the coming year, speeding up recruitment and getting those all-important results that will change forever the way this illness is treated.

InPACT is an International Rare Cancers Initiative study. In the United States, the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group is leading the trial (EA8134), with sponsorship from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The trial sponsor is the Institute of Cancer Research, United Kingdom. The clinicaltrials.gov record is NCT02305654.

Learn more about InPACT (EA8134) and access educational materials at ecog-acrin.org.

The lead clinicians for the InPACT trial include Dr. Steve Nicholson (UK), Dr. Curtis Pettaway (US), and Dr. Christine Theodore (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer).

About ECOG-ACRIN

The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group is a membership-based scientific organization that designs and conducts cancer research involving adults who have or are at risk of developing cancer. The group comprises nearly 1300 member institutions and 15,000 research professionals in the United States and around the world. Visit ecog-acrin.org, follow us on Twitter @eaonc, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or call 215.789.3631.

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