Data from hundreds of studies are presented every year at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Each of these data points represents a person who volunteered for and participated in a clinical trial – we can’t advance treatments without them.
Yet, only a small fraction of eligible patients are actually able to participate in these critical scientific investigations. With cancer research speeding up and development pipelines growing rapidly, we are working to remove barriers and improve access to trials to help make new medicines available more quickly.
In order for new medicines to be approved, we need to have high-quality information from clinical trials. If patients are unable to participate, we can't get the information we need to deliver new medicines. As cancer treatments become more personalized and targeted to very specific types of cancer, trial enrollment is becoming more difficult.
So we set out to explore the biggest barriers that keep patients from enrolling in trials, and how we can improve access to help bring the best new medicines to the right patients.
Here’s what we found:
BRINGING THE TRIAL TO THE PATIENT
We are working to address the three enrollment barriers of geography, awareness and trust in several ways.
In addition to conducting telemedicine trials in multiple diseases, we are exploring how mobile health devices and smartphone apps can be used to improve patient engagement and safety monitoring, while reducing the burden of data collection.
We are also working closely with patient advocacy groups to improve access by gathering insights through patients’ real-world experiences and spreading news about trial opportunities.
Through new approaches like these, we hope to bring clinical trials to patients, instead of patients to clinical trials.
Ultimately, this will help us provide new medicines to people with cancer as quickly as possible.
References:
- Slide 2 - Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation, 2013 Perceptions and Insights Study
- Slide 3 - NCI Cancer Bulletin. Legislative Update: Most States Fall Short of Requirements for Insurance Coverage of Cancer Clinical Trials. January 10, 2012.
- Slide 4 - Internal Roche Survey
- Slide 8 - Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, 2007
- Slide 9 - Internal Roche Survey