News & Blog

Last week ICA staff and Board Members attended NIDDK’s Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Network Steering Committee Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. MAPP was launched to help better understand the underlying causes of the two most prominent chronic urological pain syndromes – interstitial cystitis (IC) and chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). As one of only two patient advocacy organizations participating in the MAPP Steering Committee meetings, ICA has repeatedly encouraged the investigators to focus their continued research in areas that will translate into direct benefits for IC patients. Protocols for the five-year second phase of MAPP (MAPP II) have been finalized and are awaiting approval from the Network’s various Institutional review boards (IRBs). Recruitment will begin very soon! Because of the discoveries made by so many diligent investigators both in MAPP and other programs, there is hope for discovery of better treatments and an eventual cure for IC in the future.

If you’re curious about the latest from MAPP, the first MAPP newsletter can be downloaded here.