AI-Guided TURBT for Bladder Cancer (AITURBT)

July 23, 2026 updated by: Du Lingzhi, Fudan University

Evaluation of the Efficacy and Safety of an AI Navigation Planning System in Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor: A Prospective, Randomized, Controlled, Single-Center Study

This prospective, randomized, controlled, single-center study evaluates whether an AI navigation planning system used during Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor (TURBT) can improve recurrence-free survival in patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Participants are randomized to receive either standard TURBT surgery or standard TURBT with AI-assisted real-time tumor identification and resection margin guidance. The primary outcome is recurrence-free survival, with secondary outcomes including surgical duration, intraoperative blood loss, perioperative bleeding, and complication rates. The study aims to provide high-level evidence on the clinical utility of AI-assisted surgical navigation in bladder cancer treatment.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
170

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age between 18 and 75 years, male or female.
  • Clinical or imaging diagnosis of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) according to international diagnostic standards (CT, MRI, ultrasound, cystoscopy).
  • Medically fit for TURBT surgery, with normal or essentially normal renal, cardiopulmonary, and hepatic function.
  • Willing and able to provide written informed consent (signed by the patient or a legally authorized representative).

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant or lactating women.
  • Severe dysfunction of other vital organs (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc.).
  • Imaging evidence of distant metastases.
  • Severe infection or active inflammation.
  • Psychiatric disorders or inability to comply with study procedures.
  • Any other condition deemed by the investigator as inappropriate for participation.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
No Intervention: control
Participants in the control group undergo conventional Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor (TURBT) following standard clinical guidelines. The surgeon determines tumor margins and resection range based solely on white-light cystoscopy findings and personal clinical experience, without the use of the AI navigation planning system. All perioperative management, including anesthesia, postoperative care, and follow-up protocols, is identical to that of the experimental group.
Experimental: AI-navigation
Participants in the experimental group undergo standard TURBT with the assistance of the AI navigation planning system. During surgery, the real-time cystoscopic video is processed by the system, which automatically identifies suspicious tumor regions and dynamically displays recommended resection margins as visual overlays on the surgical monitor. The surgeon integrates this AI-generated information with clinical judgment to determine the final resection plan, with the ultimate decision-making authority remaining with the surgeon at all times. All perioperative management, including anesthesia, postoperative care, and follow-up protocols, is identical to that of the control group.
Device: AI Navigation Planning System
The AI Navigation Planning System is a software-based medical device that processes real-time video from a standard cystoscope during TURBT. It uses deep learning algorithms to automatically identify suspicious tumor regions and perform semantic segmentation of tumor boundaries on the endoscopic video stream. The system overlays the identified tumor areas and dynamically recommended resection margins onto the surgical monitor as visual guidance for the surgeon. The system achieves a diagnostic accuracy of 97% and an AUC of 0.97 in multi-center validation. It is designed to assist surgeons in achieving more complete tumor resection by reducing reliance on subjective visual assessment alone. The system operates locally on a standard workstation without requiring internet connectivity, ensuring data security.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS)
Time Frame: Time Frame: Up to 24 months post-surgery
Time from surgery to the first occurrence of tumor recurrence confirmed by imaging (CT/MRI/ultrasound) or cystoscopy with pathological biopsy, or death from any cause, whichever occurs first. Participants without an event at the end of follow-up will be censored at the date of the last known follow-up visit.
Time Frame: Up to 24 months post-surgery

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Surgical Duration
Time Frame: Day of surgery (intraoperative)
Time from cystoscope entry into the bladder to successful placement of the urinary catheter at the end of surgery, recorded in minutes.
Day of surgery (intraoperative)
Intraoperative Blood Loss
Time Frame: Day of surgery (intraoperative
Total blood loss during surgery, calculated by suction canister fluid minus irrigation fluid plus gauze weighing method, recorded in milliliters (mL).
Day of surgery (intraoperative
Perioperative Bleeding Rate
Time Frame: Up to 14 days post-surgery
Proportion of participants experiencing bleeding requiring interventional therapy, unplanned reoperation, or blood transfusion within 14 days post-surgery.
Up to 14 days post-surgery
Number of Lesions Detected Intraoperatively
Time Frame: Day of surgery (intraoperative)
Total number of tumor lesions identified and documented during the surgical procedure.
Day of surgery (intraoperative)
Postoperative Residual Lesion Rate
Time Frame: Up to 3 months post-surgery
Proportion of participants with residual or newly detected lesions at the first postoperative cystoscopy follow-up visit.
Up to 3 months post-surgery
Surgery-Related Complication Rate
Time Frame: Up to 30 days post-surgery
Incidence and severity of postoperative complications graded according to the Clavien-Dindo Classification (Grade I to V) within 30 days post-surgery.
Up to 30 days post-surgery

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Fudan University

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Study Director: Jiajun Wang, MD, Fudan University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
August 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
May 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
November 30, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
July 19, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 23, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
July 27, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
July 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 23, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • ZS-AI based navigation

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

IPD will not be shared due to: (1) the informed consent form does not include provisions for sharing individual participant data with external researchers; (2) intraoperative video data contain sensitive patient information that cannot be fully anonymized; (3) institutional data governance policies restrict data sharing beyond the primary study team; and (4) the AI navigation system involves proprietary technology, and the validation dataset requires controlled access to protect intellectual property. Summary-level results will be made available in peer-reviewed publications.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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