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The Terry Beirn Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA) is a self-governed organization with its own scientific agenda and process to determine what will be evaluated in its clinical trials. Non-CPCRA investigators wishing to evaluate research ideas in a phase III or phase IV clinical trial must collaborate with CPCRA investigators.

The CPCRA is a network of community-based health care providers who have integrated scientific research into primary care. Established in 1989, the CPCRA includes 15 research units, a Statistical Center, and an Operations Center. Research units are based in a variety of primary care settings, including private practices, community, university, and veterans' hospitals; and freestanding community clinics. Located in 14 cities across the United States, these 15 units and their patient base represent geographic, racial and risk group diversity. The CPCRA offers access to a large number of patients whose demographic characteristics reflect those of the evolving epidemic. The CPCRA has established clinician/patient relationships that enhance patient retention and compliance in clinical studies and allow for long-term follow-up. Additional information can be obtained from the CPCRA website by clicking here .

CPCRA Research Agenda

The overall objective of the CPCRA is to design studies of sufficient size and duration of follow up to evaluate the long-term benefits and unintended consequences of various treatment strategies using available agents to assess long-term immunologic, virologic and clinical outcomes. CPCRA trials are designed with nested substudies aimed at understanding the pathogenesis of HIV infection and the public health implications of its treatment.

Antiretroviral and immunomodulatory research focuses on studies designed to determine the durability of virologic suppression of initial drug regimens and evaluate the virologic changes caused by second- and third-line regimens, as well as analyze the clinical consequences of the entire treatment sequence. The CPCRA plans to investigate the clinical outcome of patients with early HIV infection who receive an immunomodulator, as well as investigate various treatment combinations and sequences in this patient population.

The goal of CPCRA research on complications of HIV is to optimize the prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections (OIs) and other complications of HIV disease. CPCRA studies on the prevention of tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus, Mycobacterium avium complex and toxoplasmosis have provided data that helped establish current patient management guidelines. The CPCRA studies how the spectrum of complication of HIV disease is changing and whether OI prophylaxis and treatment strategies should be modified. In addition, the CPCRA is interested in the implications of nutritional and metabolic disregulation to the pathogenesis, treatment, and clinical course of HIV disease.

Accessing These Resources

Investigators wishing to collaborate with the CPCRA should do the following:

1. Refer to the CPCRA research agenda above to determine whether the proposed study is likely to be of interest to this group. If so:
2. Write up the research idea in the appropriate format.
3. Submit the proposal to the DAIDS Therapeutics Research Program for review and forwarding to the CPCRA.

CPCRA's interest or disinterest in further pursuing the proposed research idea will be relayed to investigators and additional information may be requested.