Topical or Ablative Treatment in Preventing Anal Cancer in Patients With HIV and Anal High-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions (ANCHOR)
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02135419 |
Recruitment Status :
Active, not recruiting
First Posted : May 12, 2014
Last Update Posted : October 18, 2021
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Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Anal Cancer High-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion HIV Infection Human Papilloma Virus Infection | Drug: imiquimod Drug: fluorouracil Device: infrared photocoagulation therapy Device: thermal ablation therapy Device: laser therapy Other: clinical observation Other: laboratory biomarker analysis | Phase 3 |

Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Estimated Enrollment : | 5058 participants |
Allocation: | Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Parallel Assignment |
Masking: | None (Open Label) |
Primary Purpose: | Prevention |
Official Title: | ANCHOR Study: Anal Cancer/HSIL Outcomes Research Study |
Actual Study Start Date : | September 24, 2014 |
Actual Primary Completion Date : | August 18, 2021 |
Estimated Study Completion Date : | June 30, 2027 |

Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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Experimental: Arm I (treatment)
Patients are directed to receive either topical or ablative treatment at the discretion of the clinician. Patients receiving topical treatment apply imiquimod intra-anally, peri-anally or both thrice weekly for up to 16 weeks, fluorouracil twice daily for 5 days every 2 weeks for up to 16 weeks, or trichloroacetic acid every 3 weeks up to 12 weeks. Patients receiving ablative treatment using infrared photocoagulation therapy, hyfrecation/electrocautery (thermal ablation therapy), or laser therapy. Patients may undergo excision under anesthesia if the clinician believes none of the other treatment approaches will be effective. The number and timing of such treatments will be at the discretion of the investigator. Patients with persistent HSIL should continue a protocol-approved treatment or a new protocol treatment should be considered. All participants will have samples collected for laboratory biomarker analysis.
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Drug: imiquimod
Applied topically
Other Names:
Drug: fluorouracil Applied topically
Other Names:
Device: infrared photocoagulation therapy Undergo infrared coagulation
Other Names:
Device: thermal ablation therapy Undergo hyfrecation/electrocautery therapy Device: laser therapy Undergo laser therapy
Other Name: therapy, laser Other: laboratory biomarker analysis Correlative studies |
Active Comparator: Arm II (active monitoring)
Patients undergo active monitoring with examinations for clinical observation every 6 months. Every 12 months, patients undergo biopsies of visible lesions. Patients have cytology sampling performed at every visit. All participants will have samples collected for laboratory biomarker analysis.
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Other: clinical observation
Undergo active monitoring
Other Name: observation Other: laboratory biomarker analysis Correlative studies |
- Time to anal cancer [ Time Frame: Time from randomization to diagnosis of anal cancer, assessed up to 5 years ]The log-rank test will be used to compare the treatment and control arms with respect to time to detection of anal cancer. For each arm, the hazard rate and its 95% confidence interval will be estimated. The proportional hazards model will be used to assess the association of study site, lesion size, lesion location, nadir CD4 level and gender with time to detection of anal cancer.
- Incidence of adverse events for each treatment [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]Summarized by type of adverse event and severity grade for each of the treatments. For adverse events that occur in more than 5% of any of the treatments, the Poisson rates will be used to estimate the number of adverse events per unit time and the binomial proportion and its 95% confidence interval will be used to estimate the proportion of participants who reported the event.
- Quality of life assessed using the Functional Assessment of Incontinence Therapy - Fecal (FAIT-F) questionnaire [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]Descriptive statistics will be used for subscales and scores for each arm and each time point. General estimating equations will be used to compare the two arms with respect to subscales and scores across time points and adjustment for intra-participant variability.
- Viral factors in HSIL progression to cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the integration locus of HPV In the invasive cancers and whether they differ from those of the overlying HSIL. Descriptive statistics will also be used to determine if the loci differ in HSIL that have progressed and concurrent HSIL biopsies that did not progress. In each case only tissues that contain HPV 16 will be analyzed.
- Host factors in HSIL progression to cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]Linear models will be fitted for each gene. Moderated t-statistics, fold-change and the associated p values will be calculated for each gene. Since thousands of genes will be tested, false discovery rate (FDR)-adjusted values will be calculated using the Benjamini-Hochberg method. FDR values indicate the expected fraction of falsely declared differentially expressed (DE) genes among the total set of declared DE genes, i.e. FDR = 0.15 would indicate that 15% of the declared DE genes were expected to be false due to experimental noise instead of actual differential expression.
- Host and viral biomarkers of progression from HSIL to cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]
- Behavioral risk factors for HSIL progression to cancer [ Time Frame: Up to 5 years ]For each risk factor of interest, Fisher's exact test or Pearson's chi-square test will be used to determine if there is an association. Factors associated with invasive anal cancer at the 0.10 significance level will be incorporated into a logistic regression model to determine if they are independently associated with invasive anal cancer. Cox regression analyses will also be used to evaluate the association between risk factors and time to diagnosis of invasive anal cancer.

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Ages Eligible for Study: | 35 Years and older (Adult, Older Adult) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
- HIV-1 infection, as documented by any federally approved, licensed HIV test performed in conjunction with screening (or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA], test kit, and confirmed by western blot or other approved test); alternatively, this documentation may include a record that another physician has documented that the participant has HIV infection based on prior ELISA and western blot, or other approved diagnostic tests; an approved antibody test will be used to confirm diagnosis; if the physician is treating a patient with combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) with a history of HIV positivity based on an approved antibody test then repeat antibody confirmation is not necessary
- No history of treatment or removal of HSIL
- No history of anal cancer or signs of anal cancer at baseline, and no history of penile, vulvar, vaginal or cervical cancer
- Biopsy-proven HSIL at baseline
- At least one focus of HSIL must be identified that is not within a condyloma that may be treated after enrollment into the study
- For females, cervical cytology (if having a cervix) and gynecologic evaluation including vulvar examination within 12 months prior to enrollment
- Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =< 1 (Karnofsky >= 70%)
- Life expectancy of greater than 5 years
- Absolute neutrophil count: >= 750/mm^3
- Platelets: >= 75,000/mm^3
- Hemoglobin >= 9.0 g/dL
- Women of childbearing potential must have a negative urine pregnancy test within 7 days of initiating study treatment if they have been randomized to the treatment arm; all women of childbearing potential must agree to use a reliable birth control method (oral contraceptive pills, intrauterine device, Nexplanon, DepoProvera, or permanent sterilization, etc., or another acceptable method as determined by the investigator) during the entire period of the trial (5 years), and must not intend to become pregnant during study participation and for 3 months after treatment is discontinued; all participants must be willing to comply with an acceptable birth control regimen as determined by the Investigator
- Men randomized to the treatment arm should not father a baby while in this study; men who could father a child should use at least two forms of birth control for 3 months after stopping all study treatment
- Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document
- Participant is willing to be randomized and able to comply with the protocol
- Clinician is comfortable with either following patient for up to 5 years without therapy or treating patient for up to 5 years
Exclusion Criteria:
- Inability to provide informed consent
- Patients who are receiving any other immunomodulatory investigational agents within the 4 weeks before randomization enrollment, other than investigational antiretroviral agents for HIV
- History of anal cancer, penile, vulvar, vaginal or cervical cancer
- History of prior treatment or removal of anal HSIL
- Participant has symptoms related to HSIL and would benefit more from immediate treatment than from entry into the study and potential for randomization to active monitoring arm
- Current systemic chemotherapy or radiation therapy that potentially causes bone marrow suppression that would preclude safe treatment of HSIL
- History of HPV vaccination, or intention to receive an HPV vaccine during study participation
- Prior pelvic radiation therapy that would preclude radiation therapy if anal cancer develops
- Warts so extensive that they preclude the clinician from determining the extent and location of HSIL
- Participant plans to relocate away from the study site during study participation

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT02135419

Principal Investigator: | Joel Palefsky, MD | AIDS Malignancy Consortium |
Responsible Party: | AIDS Malignancy Consortium |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT02135419 |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
AMC-A01 NCI-2014-00636 ( Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program) ) AMC-A01 ( Other Identifier: AIDS - Associated Malignancies Clinical Trials Consortium ) AMC-A01 ( Other Identifier: CTEP ) U01CA121947 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract ) |
First Posted: | May 12, 2014 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | October 18, 2021 |
Last Verified: | October 2021 |
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product: | Yes |
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product: | Yes |
Product Manufactured in and Exported from the U.S.: | No |
Infections Communicable Diseases Papillomavirus Infections Papilloma Anus Neoplasms Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions of the Cervix Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Situ Disease Attributes Pathologic Processes Virus Diseases Neoplasms, Squamous Cell Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial Neoplasms by Histologic Type Neoplasms |
Rectal Neoplasms Colorectal Neoplasms Intestinal Neoplasms Gastrointestinal Neoplasms Digestive System Neoplasms Neoplasms by Site Digestive System Diseases Gastrointestinal Diseases Intestinal Diseases Anus Diseases Rectal Diseases Uterine Cervical Dysplasia Precancerous Conditions Uterine Cervical Diseases Uterine Diseases |