A Message from Dr. Nancy Mendenhall – Summer 2024

Dr. Nancy Mendenhall

Dear COMPPARE team, participants, stakeholders and friends,

As you may know, the COMPPARE study was made possible by an initial five-year, $11.9 million grant from the Patient-centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) in 2017 to directly compare the potential benefits and harms of proton therapy to standard radiation therapy when treating prostate cancer. We completed accrual on October 31, 2022, and this initial grant covers at least three years of follow-up for all participants.

We appreciate participant commitment to providing the team with their follow-up information, as your outcomes will help future prostate cancer patients make more informed decisions.  We look forward to some early results on two- and three-year outcomes in 2025 and 2026.

The more important outcomes, however, are the long-term outcomes which cannot be assessed until 5 to 8 years after treatment.  Over the past two years, we have been searching for funding opportunities to support another 5 years of follow-up for the COMPPARE cohorts to provide all participants with a minimum of 8 years of follow-up.

This spring a new funding opportunity was announced by PCORI and the COMPPARE study has been invited to apply for this grant which would support another five years of follow-up and improve our understanding of long-term patient-centered outcomes.

According to PCORI, the new grant opportunity represents the institute’s first such funding announcement for long-term follow-up: “This feature of clinical effectiveness research remains underexplored in PCORI’s funding portfolio and serves as an opportunity to enhance efforts to identify the long-term impacts of therapeutic interventions, treatments, or programs and to obtain a more comprehensive view of intervention benefits and harms.”

The grant is competitive, so wish us luck! PCORI will announce award recipients in April 2025. For more information about PCORI, visit the institute’s website.

We hope you enjoy a safe and happy summer!

In good health,

Nancy Mendenhall, MD