How to build successful prospective trials

Ms. Nikita R. Bhatt Urology trainee Cambridge University Hospital, Cambridge, UK Co-Chair BURST, United Kingdom

Collaborative research is being undertaken at a pace never before seen as its strengths and benefits are realised, resulting in good quality practice-changing research. With several surgical initiatives being developed, urology has seen the rise of collaborative research over the last few years. Our lecture “How to build collaborative prospective trials” during the EAU22 congress session “YUORDay22: EAU Young Urologists Office (YUO) & European Society of Residents in Urology (ESRU)”, will focus on how to utilise this collaborative model to build successful prospective trials. In order to build such a trial, the foundation of strong collaboration is key.

The British Urology Researchers in Surgical Training (BURST) [1], is an international research group comprising of urological trainees, medical students, core surgical trainees, consultants, methodologists and basic scientists. The aim of the BURST Research Collaborative is to produce high impact multi-centre audit and research which can improve patient care.

Although it retains its British core, the BURST Research Collaborative has become an international organisation with a broad reach with over 500 collaborators from around the world since its official launch at the British Association of Urological Surgeons in 2015. The first large international cohort study launched by BURST was MIMIC (a Multi-centre Cohort Study: Evaluating the role of inflammatory markers in patient’s presenting with acute ureteric colic) [2] (Figure 1), led by Mr. Taimur Shah. This established the BURST network and led to the formation of a number of national and international collaborations. It has developed into a prize-winning collaborative that has presented work around the world and impacted urological research and practice.

We have continued to build trials with the strength of this cooperation and our relationship with our collaborators. Since MIMIC, we have successfully completed and published IDENTIFY (The Investigation and DEtection of urological Neoplasia in paTIents reFerred with suspected urinary tract cancer: A multicentre analysis) another prospective multicentre international collaborative trial (Figure 2) [3]. The high-quality data collected by these trials will also lend itself to calculators that can be used in practice: a spontaneous stone passage prediction tool and a urinary tract cancer prediction tool.

We are currently recruiting for our prospective international trial on improving quality in transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) surgery with randomised feedback to sites: Transurethral REsection and Single instillation intra-vesical chemotherapy Evaluation in bladder Cancer Treatment (RESECT). This is the largest ever study on TURBT ever performed, with over 6000 TURBT cases already entered in our database.

Recruitment for RESECT is still open, www. bursturology.com/Studies/Resect/Overview/ for more information or email us at resect@bursturology.com. You will receive PubMed indexed collaborative authorship, with the opportunity for mainline authorship for our highest recruiters. In addition, you get access to a free data collection and reporting tool to audit your own practice, and you can use your own data as you wish. The success of our previous trials is testament to our high-quality work and research output. Participation in this trial will help you understand the workings of a collaborative research model closely and allow you to reap its benefits first hand. We are conducting a collaborator engagement meeting during the conference to discuss the progress of RESECT and future plan. This would be a good opportunity to meet the team face to face. Please join us at EAU22 to understand how BURST produces prospective international trials that change practice. For more information, please visit our website www.bursturology.com/about/about-burst and join us in our currently recruiting trial RESECT. Due to space constraints, the entire reference list can be made available to interested readers upon request by sending an email to: communications@ uroweb.org.

Saturday, 2 July 10:00 - 17:00 YUORDay22 Green Area, Room 1

Figure 1: MIMIC was our first prize winning prospective international trial

Figure 2: With over 11,000 patients IDENTIFY was the largest ever study of its kind

14th European Multidisciplinary Congress on Urological Cancers Working together to improve patient care