Testing Immunotherapy with Radiation Therapy for Patients with High-Risk, T1 Bladder Cancer (NRG-GU014, The PARRC Trial)

05/12/2026

The NRG-GU014 clinical trial, also known as the “PARRC study” is currently active and enrolling patients with high-grade, T1 bladder cancer. This study is designed to test if the addition of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab to radiation therapy can help patients potentially avoid having their bladder removed and extend the time before the bladder cancer recurs.

“Given the lack of effective bladder-sparing options for this high-risk cancer and the limitations of existing data, this trial is essential to determine whether modern, combined modality approaches can safely replace radical cystectomy and improve outcomes for this vulnerable patient population,” stated Brian Baumann, MD, of Springfield Clinic and the Principal Investigator of the PARRC study.

NRG-GU014 will enroll patients with high-risk T1 urothelial carcinoma that were recommended to undergo cystectomy and will stratify patients by disease history and histology. Following stratification, patients will be randomly assigned to receive bladder-directed radiotherapy with either physician’s choice concurrent chemotherapy or pembrolizumab in 9 cycles.

The primary objective of this study is to compare bladder-intact, event-free survival between both treatments. This trial also includes a number of secondary and exploratory objectives. Secondary objectives include assessing complete response by cystoscopy at 6 months, disease-free survival, local-regional control, metastasis-free survival, overall survival, quality of life, and adverse events between treatments. Exploratory objectives include assessing fatigue, quality adjusted survival, and cumulative quality of life between treatments.

“We strongly encourage sites to enroll to this very important study that has the potential to change practice and shape the way we treat patients with this type of bladder cancer,” added Scott Delacroix, MD, of the Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and the Co-Principal Investigator of the PARRC study.

More information:

More on NRG-GU014 can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov

Protocol documents for NRG-GU014 are available on CTSU.org.

This study has a patient study webpage available on NRGOncology.org.