Milwaukee Study is Trying to Find Anal Cancer Earlier

Milwaukee, Feb. 11, 2022 –  For the first time, a national study has proven that treatments for anal cancer work at preventing the disease. The ANCHOR Study used a procedure called high-resolution anoscopy (HRA) to find the pre-cancerous lesions that were then successfully treated. A Milwaukee study is enrolling persons who all get an HRA to detect the precancerous lesions. The Prevent Anal Cancer (PAC) Study, funded by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, pays for the study HRA. They are enrolling gay and bisexual men and transgender persons into the study who receive up to $130 for being in the study.

“People who join the study can learn if they have precancerous lesions which now, for the first time, have proven treatments to eliminate them,” according to Alan Nyitray, PhD, principal investigator of the PAC Study. The PAC Study is being led by researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in partnership with the following Milwaukee clinics: Holton Street Clinic, Inclusion Health Clinic at Froedtert-MCW, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers, Vivent Health, and the Anal Dysplasia Clinic at Froedtert-MCW.

“We’re focusing the study on gay and bisexual men because their chance of anal cancer is 10-80 times higher than the rest of the general population,” Dr. Nyitray said.

Learn more about the PAC Study