Chronic Prostatitis Collaborative Research Network (CPCRN)

• Background
• Centers and Studies
• Collaboration with Interstitial Cystitis Network

Background

Chronic prostatitis is a disabling condition of unknown origin affecting men of all ages and ethnic groups. Most have chronic pelvic pain associated with urinary frequency and urgency; however, they do not have demonstrable urinary or prostatic infections that can be detected by conventional microbiological techniques. No effective, long-term treatment is available for chronic prostatitis.

In 1995, the NIDDK sponsored a workshop that developed a plan to standardize and evaluate various methods of diagnosing and treating chronic prostatitis with the long-term goal of preventing and effectively treating this condition. In response to this workshop, the NIDDK formed the Chronic Prostatitis Collaborative Research Network (CPCRN) in 1997.

Centers and Studies

CPCRN comprises six clinical centers: Harvard University School of Medicine/Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia; University of Maryland, Baltimore; Northwestern University, Chicago; Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles; and Kingston General Hospital at Queens University, Ontario, Canada. The data-coordinating center is at the University of Pennsylvania.

The network established a prospective cohort study of 500 men with chronic prostatitis symptoms who could be followed in a longitudinal study and compared with an age-matched control group. Data obtained from the cohort was used to provide further insight into the characteristics of men with chronic prostatitis. One outcome of the network was the development of the Chronic Prostatitis Symptoms Index (CPSI), which achieved the research goal identified as the highest priority by the Epidemiologic and Health Care Cost Data work group at NIDDK's 1995 Workshop on Chronic Prostatitis.

A randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial comparing treatment with Cipro and Flomax was initiated in the summer of 2001. This trial was completed in spring 2003 and the results are being analyzed for publication. The NIDDK is building on the work begun by the CPCRN. A new research network is being organized that will conduct additional clinical trials of promising therapeutic interventions, either sequentially or concurrently, over a second five-year period. The new CPCRN will comprise 10 clinical centers and a data-coordinating center. Ancillary studies will be conducted in conjunction with the clinical trials.

Collaboration with Interstitial Cystitis Network

In the past five years, during the course of clinical trials conducted by both the Interstitial Cystitis Clinical Trials Group (ICCTG) and the CPCRN, it became apparent that there were similar approaches to conducting clinical trials for chronic prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and interstitial cystitis. These approaches include the development and use of validated symptom indices to measure response to treatment, the need for institutions to become referral centers for these conditions in order to achieve recruitment goals, and the challenges to identify novel therapies that allow for rapid accrual of clinical trial participants.

As a result, the new CPCRN will collaborate with investigators from the newly established Interstitial Cystitis Collaborative Research Network (ICCRN), an outgrowth of the ICCTG. The overarching organization will be called the Urological Pelvic Pain Collaborative Research Network (UPPCRN). The UPPCRN will improve the efficiency of protocol development, develop common definitions and criteria, and facilitate common data collection to permit comparisons between the clinical trials. This coordination is needed in key areas of protocol development, including establishment of disease and enrollment criteria, outcome measures, and identification of therapies to be evaluated.

Program Manager: John Kusek, Ph.D., 301-594-7717