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Active, not recruitingNCT04701151Updated Mar 3, 2026

NORTH-REG Dwell-Time Study

A Phase 4 interventional study of Bacillus Calmette Guerin in Side Effect of Drug, sponsored by Jørgen Bjerggaard Jensen. Active, not recruiting at 11 sites in 3 countries. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-03.

Sponsored by Jørgen Bjerggaard Jensen · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
314
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Previous studies show that the majority NMIBC patients experience side effects to BCG and therefore terminate the instillations before completing all planned instillations. This will increase their risk of recurrence and potential cystectomy. The purpose of this study is to investigate if NMIBC patients who experience severe side effects to BCG instillations will experience fewer or less severe side effects if reducing dwell-time of BCG instillations.

The study will include patients from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Read the detailed description

Approximately 8,000 patients are diagnosed with bladder cancer (BC) in the Nordic countries every year. The majority of BC patients are diagnosed with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The majority of NMIBC are treated with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) as adjuvant treatment but for carcinoma in situ it is the primary treatment. BCG is known to give a lot of side effects both local and systemic, the severity of these can lead to premature termination of the treatment.

The object of this PhD project is to investigate if reduced dwell time, the time the BCG is in the bladder, will decrease the severity of side effects due to BCG instillations.

This will be investigated in a Nordic setting and the project will be done as a two-armed randomized clinical trial.

By decreasing the severity of side effects, we hypothesize the number of patients completing all planned instillations will increase and thereby decrease the risk of the BC evolving into a more aggressive type.

02

Conditions studied

  • Side Effect of Drug
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • ≥18 years of age at the time of signing the Informed Consent Form
  • Signed Informed Consent Form
  • Patients with NMIBC where BCG therapy including maintenance for 1 year is planned for one of the following histopathological findings:
  • Ta high grade without CIS
  • CIS with or without previous or concomitant Ta tumors
  • T1 with or without CIS
  • Is, according to the Investigator's judgement, able to comply with the trial protocol
  • Ability to understand the Patient Information Sheet orally and in writing

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Previous BCG instillations within the last 2 years, because of the risk of not having cleared potential previos side effects.
  • T1 tumors where re-resection had not been performed
  • TUR-B, bladder biopsy or traumatic catheterization within 2 weeks.
  • Previous or current MIBC
  • Progression defined as progrssion to T1-tumour, T2+_tumour or cystectomy irrespectievely of indication or development of metastatic urothelial cancer irrespectively of tumour stage
  • Contraindications to BCG
  • Incontinence
  • Bilateral nephrostomy catheters; unilateral nephrostomy catheter is allowed if permanent for the duration of all inistallations with BCG and a normally functioning kidney.
  • Need for catheter a demeure at the time of instillation
  • Immune Suppressing medication (cancer therapy e.g cytostatic medicinal products, radiation, local and systemic steroids like e.g. prednisolone is permitted)
  • Reduced immune response (leukaemia, lymphoma)
  • Known allergy or sensitivity to BCG
  • HIV infection
  • Signs of active tuberculosis
  • Any type of previosly radiation therapy involving the bladder.
  • Concomitant invasive cancer within 5 years other than non-melanoma skin cancer and protate cancer without metastasis
  • Current urinary tract infection
  • Patient with visible hematuria
  • Current alcohol and/or drug abuse
  • Has a mental or legal incapacitation or another condition which impair the subject's ability to participate
  • Has participated in another interventional clinical study and treatment with another investigational product 30 days prior to randomization
  • For women study subjects: Pregnancy or breastfeeding
  • For women Study subjects of childbearing potential: unless they are using highly effective methods of contraception from the first BCG instillations until 14 days after last dose of BCG treatment, which are defined as total abstinence, female sterilization, use of oral methods of contraception or placement of an intrauterine contraception devices.
  • For male Study Subjects: unless they are using highly effective methods of contraception from the first BCG instillation until for 14 days after last dose of BCG treatment, which is defined as total abstinence or use of condoms.
04

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
314 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Intervention

    Study Subjects randomized to the interventional arm will be assigned to BCG induction therapy once-weekly for 6 weeks and subsequent 1 year of maintenance (6+3x3) of which dwell-time during the first of the 6 induction instillations is 2 hours. If side effects are registered before the second and all further instillations, Study Subject in the intervention arm will be reduced in dwell-time according to the grading of side effects as given by the study algorithm.

    Drug: Bacillus Calmette Guerin

  • Active comparator
    Control

    The Study Subjects will be treated according to guidelines with BCG instillation therapy once weekly for 6 weeks and subsequent 1 year of maintenance therapy (6+3x3) with 2 hours of dwelltime.

    Drug: Bacillus Calmette Guerin

Interventions

  • DrugBacillus Calmette Guerin

    The same dose of the drug will be given in both arms but the dwell-time will be adjusted for the subjects in the intervention arm according to the grading of side effects given by the study algorithm.

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Completion of instillations

    Number of Study Subjects completing all 6 induction instillations and subsequent maintenance installations for 12 months (6 + 3 x 3)

    Time frame: 5 years

Secondary outcomes

  1. Recurrence rate

    Recurrence rate within 24 months in Study Subjects with initial complete response

    Time frame: 5 years

06

Study locations

11 sites
  • Aarhus University Hospital
    Aarhus, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark
  • Department of Urology, Aalborg University Hospital
    Aalborg, 9100, Denmark
  • Department of Urology, Rigshospitalet
    Copenhagen, 2100, Denmark
  • Herlev Hospital
    Herlev, Denmark
  • Regional Hospital Gødstrup
    Herning, 7400, Denmark
  • Odense University Hospital
    Odense, 5000, Denmark
  • Zealand University Hospital
    Roskilde, 4000, Denmark
  • Landspitali University Hospital
    Reykjavik, 101, Iceland
  • PO Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset
    Gothenburg, sw 413 45, Sweden
  • Örebro University Hospital
    Örebro, 701 85, Sweden
  • Karolinska University Hospital
    Stockholm, 141-86, Sweden
07

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04701151
Lead sponsor
Jørgen Bjerggaard Jensen
Collaborators
Aarhus University Hospital, Herlev Hospital, Odense University Hospital, Aalborg University Hospital, Regional Hospital West Jutland, Rigshospitalet, Denmark, Zealand University Hospital, Landspitali University Hospital, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Region Örebro County, Karolinska University Hospital
Responsible party
Jørgen Bjerggaard Jensen (Professor, Consultant, MD, DMSc Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus University Hospital) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
Jan 8, 2021
Start date
Feb 3, 2021
Primary completion
Dec 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2030 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 3, 2026

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Mar 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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