§ Mrs. CaltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) by what date the National Cancer Research Network expects to have all 300 patients recruited for the SPIRIT trial; [154935]
(2) what the status is of the SPIRIT trial into a cure for prostate cancer; [154936]
(3) how many centres have been approved to enter patients in the SPIRIT trial; and when they will be receiving patients. [154937]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe SPIRIT trial received multi-centre research ethics committee approval in November 2003. Local research ethics committee approval is currently being applied for at the various centres that plan to participate. The trial is led by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG). Any centre that wishes to participate must obtain United States federal-wide assurance, and investigators and research nurses must obtain membership of the ACOSOG. The trial team anticipates that six to eight centres in the United Kingdom will be approved by summer 2004, and that these centres will immediately start entering patients into the trial. The team is confident that 300 UK patients will be recruited before May 2007, which is the US target for completing accrual.