ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT02395497Updated Jul 14, 2026

Human Penile Allotransplantation

A Phase 2/3 interventional study of Monoclonal Antibody (Humanized Anti-CD52) and Tacrolimus in Amputation, Wounds and Injuries and Amputation, Traumatic, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to male participants aged 18 Years to 69 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-14.

Primary conditionAmputation, TraumaticRegistry: Wounds and InjuriesReclassifiedWhy we changed it
Registry
Wounds and Injuries — the first condition term the registry derived for this study.
ClinicalTrials.gg
Amputation, Traumatic
Why
  1. The study's listed conditions name Amputation, Traumatic, a narrower term within Wounds and Injuries.
Confidence
High: the new condition is named in the study's own listed conditions. Of 351 hand-checked studies reclassified this way, 68% were exactly right and 84% in the right disease family; the registry's first term was right for 5% (measured 2026-10-21). How we classify →
Wrong?
Tell us the study's main condition →

Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University · Phase 2/3, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 9 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jun 2014, registered Mar 2015).
  • Started Jun 2014; still recruiting 12 years 5 months later.
Phase
Phase 2/3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 69 Years
Sex
Male
01

Study summary

Injuries to the genitalia are of concern to the military with emphasis placed on the surgical reconstruction and psychological health of these Wounded Warriors. However, despite significant surgical advances in microvascular surgery and autologous free tissue transfer, conventional reconstructions cannot truly replace the complicated structures and functions of the penis including the urethra, erogenous sensation, and erectile corporal bodies. Conventional reconstruction poses several challenges: patients may not have sufficient donor tissue due to other injuries or previous surgery; multiple operations are often needed to restore the neophallus; the final reconstruction only approximates the penis' native form; recreating the urethra is challenging and the new urethra is prone to stricture and fistula formation; the erectile function necessary for sexual intercourse is often lacking; and insufficient protective sensation can lead to penile implant extrusion, infection, subsequent explantation or loss of the reconstruction.

The investigators propose this clinical trial to determine functional outcomes and quality of life for Wounded Warriors and civilians who choose to undergo penile allotransplantation. The investigators will combine extensive experience performing total penile reconstruction in a large population affected by congenital, traumatic, and therapeutically extirpated Genitourinary deformities and expertise in reconstructive transplantation using an immunomodulatory protocol to for this study. The investigators anticipate penile transplantation can potentially replace "like with like," restoring the appearance, anatomy, and function of the recipient in a manner far superior to autologous reconstruction. This project will establish the ability to perform penile allotransplantation using an immunomodulatory protocol and will compare outcomes with conventional phalloplasty patient results.

Study Design: This is a non-randomized subject self-controlled clinical trial to implement a cell-based immunomodulatory protocol for penile allotransplantation. An intermediate deliverable is achieving allograft survival and functional return with reduced dosing/frequency of maintenance immunosuppression on steroid-free monotherapy (tacrolimus) immunosuppression. The long-term deliverable and goal is to demonstrate superior outcomes when compared to satisfaction and QOL in conventional phalloplasty patients 12-60 months post-transplant.

Read the detailed description

Specific Aims: 1) To assess the feasibility and function of penile allotransplantation in Wounded Warriors and civilians who have lost their penis due to battle or traumatic injury, using an immunomodulatory protocol to reduce immunosuppression; 2) To assess pre-to-post changes in QOL in patients who undergo penile allotransplantation.

02

Conditions studied

  • Amputation
  • Wounds and Injuries
  • Amputation, Traumatic
  • Urologic Surgical Procedures, Male
  • Amputation, Traumatic/Surgery
  • Penis/Transplantation
  • Penis/Surgery
  • Penis/Injuries
  • Congenital Anomaly, Male Genitalia

Browse trials for

Keywords

  • Penile Transplant
  • Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA)
  • Composite Tissue Allotransplantation (CTA)
  • Penis
  • Amputation
  • Immunosuppression
  • Composite Tissue
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Allotransplantation
  • Micropenis
  • Severely Aambiguous Male Genitalia
  • congenital/birth defect
03

In context

Amputation, Traumatic Reclassified

112 studies on the registry are indexed under Amputation, Traumatic; 24 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 60 is above the median of 15 across 75 interventional studies indexed under Amputation, Traumatic.

Browse Amputation, Traumatic studies →

Lead sponsor

Johns Hopkins University is the lead sponsor of 1,815 studies on the registry; 315 are open to participants now.

Of its 208 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 144 (69%) have results posted.

Compared within Amputation, Traumatic, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Wounds and Injuries. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 69 Years
Sexes eligible
Male
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

Donor Inclusion Criteria:

  • Males aged 16 - 65 years.
  • Brain dead meeting the criteria for Determination of Death.
  • Family consent for penile graft donation.
  • Stable donor (i.e., does not require excessive vasopressors to maintain blood pressure).
  • Same blood type as recipient.
  • Negative lymphocytotoxic crossmatch.
  • Accurately matched for skin tone

Recipient Inclusion Criteria:

  • Males of any race, color or ethnicity; aged 18-69 years.
  • Recent (≥6 months) or remote (i.e., several decades) penile injury resulting in the loss of ≥75% of the phallus.
  • Penectomy secondary to penile cancer
  • Penile Cancer Survivors > 5 years
  • Micropenis associated with congenital/birth defect and severely ambiguous male genitalia
  • Must have completed a clinic appointment with one of the study surgeons to discuss all penile reconstructive options.
  • Completes the protocol form(s).
  • No co-existing medical condition which, in the opinion of the study team, could affect the immunomodulatory protocol, surgical procedure, or functional results (If the condition is amenable to treatment, the study team must agree that said condition should not significantly enhance the surgical risks of penile transplantation.).
  • No co-existing psycho-social problems (i.e., alcoholism, drug abuse).
  • Negative for for past 5 years.
  • Negative for at transplant.
  • Negative crossmatch with donor.
  • Consents to sample (i.e., skin ) collection and storage and bone marrow infusion as part of the treatment regimen.
  • USA citizen or equivalent.
  • Patient agrees to comply with the protocol and states a dedication to the immunomodulatory treatment regimen.

Recipient and Donor Exclusion Criteria:

  • Untreated sepsis.
  • HIV (active or seropositive).
  • Active tuberculosis.
  • Active infection.
  • .
  • Viral encephalitis.
  • Toxoplasmosis.
  • Malignancy (within past 5 years).
  • Current/recent (within 3 months of donation/screening consent) IV drug abuse.
  • Paralysis of ischemic or traumatic origin.
  • Inherited peripheral neuropathy.
  • Infectious, post infectious, or inflammatory (axonal or demyelinating) neuropathy.
  • Toxic neuropathy (i.e. heavy metal poisoning, drug toxicity, industrial agent exposure).
  • Mixed connective tissue disease.
  • Severe deforming rheumatoid or osteoarthritis in the limb.

Donor Only Exclusion Criteria:

  • Evidence of active herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) infection.
  • Tattoos: non-professional tattoo within the last 6 months, or personally identifiable tattoo (i.e., donor name) on potential transplant.

Recipient Only Exclusion Criteria:

  • Conditions that, in the opinion of the study team, may impact the immunomodulatory protocol potentially exposing the recipient to an unacceptable risk under treatment.
  • Sensitized recipients with high levels (50%) of panel-reactive human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies.
  • Conditions that may impact the success of the surgical procedure or increase the risk of postoperative complications including inherited coagulopathies like Hemophilia, Von-Willebrand's disease, Protein C and S deficiency, Thrombocythemias, Thalassemias, Sickle Cell disease, etc.
  • Conditions that may impact functional outcomes including Lipopolysaccharidosis and amyloidosis (may impact nerve regeneration).
  • Patients considered psychologically/psychiatrically unsuitable.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(7)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2 / Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
60 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Treatment: Transplantation

    Penile transplantation with an immunomodulatory protocol consisting of monoclonal antibody induction therapy of humanized anti CD52 followed by donor bone marrow infusion and tacrolimus monotherapy.

    Biological: Monoclonal Antibody (Humanized Anti-CD52) · Drug: Tacrolimus · Procedure: Penile Allotransplantation

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Allograft Survival

    use an immunomodulatory protocol to reduce immunosuppression. Post-operative allograft survival will be assessed by various clinical measures including: physical assessments, imaging assessments (ultrasound, CT angiography, magnetic resonance (MR) Neurography and MRI) immune monitoring (screen patient sera for donor specific antibodies), hematologic and metabolic tests, viral tests, chimerism tests, and skin biopsies

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period (up to 5 years)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Quality of Life (QOL) as assessed by Brief Symptom Inventory

    Brief Symptom Inventory questionnaire evaluates psychological distress and psychiatric disorders. It consists of 53-item self-report inventory in which participants rate the extent to which they have been bothered. 5-point rating scale, 0 indicating not at all bothered to 4 extremely bothered.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period ( 5 years)

  2. QOL as assessed by Affect Balance Scale (ABS)

    ABS is a 10-item questionnaire that assess positive and negative affect as indicators of life satisfaction and/or well-being. Score range from 0-4. 0 indicating the feeling never affected to 4, where the feeling is affected always.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period (up to 5 years)

  3. QOL as assessed by NEO Five-Factor Inventory Scale (NEO-FFI)

    NEO-FFI is used to examine personality traits. Questions consists of 60 items. Items are scored from Strongly disagree to Strongly agreed

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period (up to 5 years)

  4. QOL as assessed by the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF)

    A score of 0-5 is awarded to each of the 15 questions that examine the 4 main domains of male sexual function: erectile function, orgasmic function, sexual desire and intercourse satisfaction.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period (up to 5 years)

  5. Psychosexual Measures assessed by Self-Esteem and Relationship (SEAR) questionnaire

    14 item questionnaire where responses are scored from 1-5. Response of 1 indicating almost never/never to 5 indicating almost always/always

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period ( 5 years)

  6. T0 asses Erection Hardness Score (EHS)

    EHS rates the hardness of erection on a scale of one to four, with four being the maximal score.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period ( 5 years)

  7. Modified Sexual Life Quality Questionnaire-Quality of Life (mSLQQ- QoL)

    Used to validate as a tool for evaluating sexual QoL. mSLQQ is measured from score of 0 to 8. 0 indicates a low score compare to 8, indicating high. A score of 4 indicates, nothing has been changed.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period ( 5 years)

  8. Psychological Measures by Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)

    SWLS is a measure of life satisfaction. Uses scale to rate from 1-7, Where 1 indicates Strongly disagree to 7 indicating strongly agree.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period ( 5 years)

  9. Brief Pain Inventory (Short Form) ) (BPISF)

    BPISF assesses the severity of pain and its impact on functioning. It is scored from 0 to 10, 0 indicating no pain, does not interfere to 10 indicating pain as bad as you can imagine, completely interferes.

    Time frame: Transplantation through end of study period ( 5 years)

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
    Baltimore, Maryland 21287, United States
    Recruiting
    • Carisa Cooney, MPH,CCRP · Contactccooney3@jhmi.edu · 443-287-4629
    • TBD TBD · Contact443-287-7848
    • Richard Redett, MD · Principal investigator
    • Damon Cooney, MD,PHD · Sub investigator
    • Gerald Brandacher, MD · Sub investigator
    • Arthur Burnett, MD · Sub investigator
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Schneeberger S, Gorantla VS, Brandacher G, Zeevi A, Demetris AJ, Lunz JG, Metes DM, Donnenberg AD, Shores JT, Dimartini AF, Kiss JE, Imbriglia JE, Azari K, Goitz RJ, Manders EK, Nguyen VT, Cooney DS, Wachtman GS, Keith JD, Fletcher DR, Macedo C, Planinsic R, Losee JE, Shapiro R, Starzl TE, Lee WP. Upper-extremity transplantation using a cell-based protocol to minimize immunosuppression. Ann Surg. 2013 Feb;257(2):345-51. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e31826d90bb. PubMed 23001085 ↗
  • Bluebond-Langner R, Redett RJ. Phalloplasty in complete aphallia and ambiguous genitalia. Semin Plast Surg. 2011 Aug;25(3):196-205. doi: 10.1055/s-0031-1281489. PubMed 22851911 ↗
  • Massanyi EZ, Gupta A, Goel S, Gearhart JP, Burnett AL, Bivalacqua TJ, Redett RJ. Radial forearm free flap phalloplasty for penile inadequacy in patients with exstrophy. J Urol. 2013 Oct;190(4 Suppl):1577-82. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2012.12.050. Epub 2012 Dec 25. PubMed 23270911 ↗
  • Tuffaha SH, Sacks JM, Shores JT, Brandacher G, Lee WPA, Cooney DS, Redett RJ. Using the dorsal, cavernosal, and external pudendal arteries for penile transplantation: technical considerations and perfusion territories. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2014 Jul;134(1):111e-119e. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000000277. PubMed 24622570 ↗
  • Schneeberger S, Landin L, Jableki J, Butler P, Hoehnke C, Brandacher G, Morelon E; ESOT CTA Working Group. Achievements and challenges in composite tissue allotransplantation. Transpl Int. 2011 Aug;24(8):760-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1432-2277.2011.01261.x. Epub 2011 May 9. PubMed 21554424 ↗
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 14, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02395497
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 23, 2015
Start date
Jun 2014
Primary completion
Jun 2034 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 2039 (estimated)
Last update
Jul 14, 2026

Study contacts

Jane Littleton, CRNP, MSN
Contact
jlittl38@jhmi.edu
410-955-6875
TBD TBD
Contact
443-287-7848
Richard Redett, MD
principal investigator · Johns Hopkins University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Studies of the drugs tested here: Antibodies, Monoclonal · Tacrolimus

Start the discussion