Neoadjuvant Upper Tract Invasive Cancer Trial (NAUTICAL)
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2025-02-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) is cancer in the lining of the kidney or ureter (the
tube that drains the kidney). This type of cancer is rare and as a result, there are only a
few studies that have looked at it.
Standard of care for UTUC would be surgery followed by chemotherapy (adjuvant chemotherapy).
However, we know from studies that have looked at cancer of the lining of the bladder, which
is a similar cancer in many ways, that treating people with chemotherapy before surgery
(neoadjuvant chemotherapy) can lead to longer survival compared to the standard of care.
There are no studies to show this in UTUC. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is thought to help
improve survival by treating any cancer that may have spread from the original tumour but
that is not visible yet on scans. This study would be the first clinical trial in Canada to
evaluate the use of chemotherapy before surgery in this disease setting.
Since UTUC is rare, the purpose of this study is to determine if it is possible to enrol
enough patients to a trial looking at the use of chemotherapy before surgery.