With just seven short months to go, we’re closing in on a major milestone: the Primary Completion Date (PCD) for the initial COMPPARE project on February 15, 2026.
When you volunteered for COMPPARE, you might have heard about something its PCD. But what does that mean for you, really?
The PCD for COMPPARE is the date when all participants have finished 3 years of follow-up after radiation therapy. COMPPARE’s key aims — quality of life, side effects, and cure rates for prostate cancer patients treated with proton therapy or photon therapy, can now be analyzed and reported on. In essence, the PCD:
- signals the study is entering its next phase— our focus now shifts heavily to data review, clean-up and analysis.
- helps us stay on schedule and meet grant or regulatory deadlines.
- means you’ll be one step closer to hearing about the initial study results.
- enables a thorough report of our progress to our primary funder, PCORI.
For you, the PCD means your initial 3-year data contribution is now part of a bigger picture that will lead to better outcomes for prostate cancer patients.
We can now begin to look at trends, outcomes, and which treatment made the most positive overall difference for participants in the long term. We thank all COMPARRE participants and partner sites for helping us reach this goal!
The Role of COMPPARE’s PCD in Research Transparency
Reaching this milestone ensures transparency and accountability in our research.
When the February 15, 2026 PCD is reached, we effectively:
- Confirm COMPPARE’s Study Progress: The PCD marks a major milestone, showing that the initial 3 years of our PCORI funded research is complete.
- Start the Countdown: It begins the clock for our researchers to publicly release the results on sites like ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Support Transparency: Reporting results on time helps ensure that the data you helped generate is used to improve medical knowledge.
- Protect Trust in COMPPARE’s Researchers: When we meet our PCD-related deadlines, it builds trust in our efforts and shows respect for all our participants and partner sites.
The PCD moves our prostate cancer research forward in a responsible and visible way and your involvement helped make it happen – thank you!
What’s next?
Reaching the PCD doesn’t mean the study is over—it simply means we are able to begin analyzing and reporting on that beginning data. We aim to continue our important data collection efforts well beyond the initial 3-year project and your participation in years 4-10 is crucial.