ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT04442724FMBRTUpdated Aug 14, 2025

Bladder Fiducial Markers and Multiparametric-MRI (Mp-MRI) to Optimize Bladder Chemo-radiotherapy

An interventional study of Fiducial marker placement and Multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) in Bladder Cancer, Urinary Bladder Neoplasm and Urologic Neoplasms, sponsored by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Recruiting at 3 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-08-14.

Sponsored by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Jun 2026, 4 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
  • Started Jul 2020; still recruiting 6 years 4 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of implanting small 24-K gold fiducial markers around a bladder tumor site, so that a Radiation Oncologist can identify the original tumor location at the time of radiation treatment. Other goals of the study include assessing whether a new MRI imaging technology can help with detection of bladder cancer earlier and more accurately when evidence of bladder cancer is not visible by scope.

Read the detailed description

This study of fiducial markers in patients with localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer will enroll patients electing bladder preservation with tri-modal therapy.

24-K gold fiducial markers will be endoscopically implanted around the tumor resection area to mark the location of the tumor site, into the bladder wall submucosa space under direct visualization via a coaxial needle. The markers are visible on all imaging modalities, including all available on-table imaging (e.g., portal and cone-beam CT) used for radiotherapy. Reliable fiducial marker placement within the bladder may have the potential to advance bladder-sparing management of localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

This study will examine the effectiveness of bladder-preserving multi-modal treatment of muscle-invasive bladder cancer with and without fiducial marker placement to guide radiotherapy targeting and to minimize collateral radiation. In addition, this study intends to verify the accuracy and report on the sensitivity and specificity of mp-MRI imaging to detect the presence and location of bladder cancer.

02

Conditions studied

  • Bladder Cancer
  • Urinary Bladder Neoplasm
  • Urologic Neoplasms
  • Neoplasms
  • Urinary Bladder Diseases

Keywords

  • Fiducial marker
  • Fiducial marker guided technique
03

In context

Urinary Bladder Neoplasms

1,798 studies on the registry are indexed under Urinary Bladder Neoplasms; 445 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 60 is close to the median of 60 across 1,296 interventional studies indexed under Urinary Bladder Neoplasms.

Browse Urinary Bladder Neoplasms studies →

Lead sponsor

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 456 studies on the registry; 107 are open to participants now.

Of its 65 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 49 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Pathologically (histologically or cytologically) proven diagnosis of primary urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. Subjects with mixed histology are required to have a dominant traditional cell carcinoma (TCC) pattern.
  • Clinical stage T2-T4a, Nx, M0 considered appropriate for, and electing to receive, chemoradiation of the bladder
  • Planned TURBT as part of the normal course treatment, to take place prior to the initiation of chemo irradiation
  • Adequate renal function: Serum creatinine \< 2 mg/dL OR calculated (CrCl) > 30ml/min
  • Ability to understand and willingness to sign a written
  • Women of and men must agree to use adequate prior to study entry, during study participation, and for 90 days after study treatment discontinuation

    • Should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while she or her partner is participating in this study, she should inform her treating physician immediately

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subjects with primary TCC of the ureter, urethra, or renal pelvis, without TCC of the bladder, are not allowed
  • Known distant disease (e.g. pulmonary or hepatic metastases)

    • Subjects with malignant lymphadenopathy in the abdomen or pelvis considered appropriate for radical cystectomy and lymphadenectomy with the goal of complete resection of all malignant disease are allowed
  • Patients with bladder abnormalities that preclude safe placement of fiducial markers (i.e. abundant large diverticuli or cellules, active or recurrent urinary infection)
  • Planned (or prior history of) definitive bladder irradiation
  • Intravesical chemo- or biologic therapy within 6 weeks of first treatment
  • Any planned systemic immunotherapy. Note that prior bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine (BCG) is not an exclusion
  • active infection or uncontrolled medical condition that would preclude participation in study
  • Pregnant or nursing women are excluded
  • Previous other than TCC that, in the opinion of the treating investigator, is likely to interfere with protocol treatment
  • Individuals with severe renal failure and cannot receive MRI contrast
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(8)

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.

Creatinine clearance (CrCl)

How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.

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.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

Adjuvant and neoadjuvant

Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

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.

05

Study design

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

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Single Arm - Bladder Chemo-Radiotherapy

    Fiducial marker placement \& cystogram during resection surgery, followed by radiation planning CT scan, mpMRI, chemo-radiation treatment; mpMRI and/or surveillance cystoscopy at 3, 6, and 9 months post-treatment.

    Procedure: Fiducial marker placement · Diagnostic Test: Multiparametric MRI (mpMRI)

Interventions

  • ProcedureFiducial marker placement

    placement of 24k gold fiducial markers surrounding the tumor site, at time of primary or re-staging bladder tumor resection

  • Diagnostic testMultiparametric MRI (mpMRI)

    In this study, mp-MRI is defined as MRI that includes T1 \& T2 weighted sequences, diffusion weighted sequences, and Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI sequences.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Bladder volume differential

    Change in bladder volumes targeted for high dose radiation (HDR) between the first (Baseline) dose volume histogram (DVH) without the fiducial markers present, compared to the second DVH made after placement of the fiducial markers

    Time frame: Baseline, after marker placement (anticipated to occur between study days 0-1)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Net dose radiation to collateral organs differential

    comparison of a DVH (Dose Volume Histogram) made without the fiducial markers present, to the second DVH made with the fiducial markers present. This will be measured by net dose (Gy to area and/or volume) to collateral organs

    Time frame: Baseline, after marker placement (anticipated to occur between study days 0-1)

  2. Positive Predictive Value of Multiparametric-MRI (mp-MRI)

    percentage of actual positive sites among those predicted positive by mpMRI

    Time frame: at the time of initial TURBT (Day 1), at the initial post-treatment surveillance cystoscopy (3 months post-treatment)

  3. Difference in alignment when markers are incorporated into the planning

    Difference in "on-table" patient alignment under the radiotherapy gantry (in millimeters, in X, Y and Z dimensions) when the patient is aligned daily based on conventional methods only (i.e. fiducial markers are not used for alignment), and when the patient is aligned based on the fiducial markers as the reference.

    Time frame: Radiotherapy treatment period (Days 14-28)

07

Study locations

3 of 3 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 14, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04442724
Responsible party
Maurice M. Garcia (Principal Investigator, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jun 23, 2020
Start date
Jul 1, 2020
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 30, 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 14, 2025

Study contacts

Laura Sarmiento, CCRP
Contact
laura.sarmiento@cshs.org
310-423-4295
Maurice Garcia, MD
principal investigator · Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Oversight

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

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