The era of large scale trials is declining for research groups like ours.
The industry is moving towards finding the genes and proteins that trigger cancer rather than simply targeting the site of the cancer.
Trials are becoming more precise, niche and complex. The landscape of clinical trials is changing as we move away from treatments based on tumour site of origin and more towards studies in small numbers of patients spanning disease sites but sharing common mutations. It is expected that these developments will result in the numbers of patients enrolled on trials to increase.
As a result, our areas of focus are shifting.
Disease areas like genitourinary, lymphoma and haematology are enrolling increasing numbers of patients in trials.
In parallel, cancer areas such as lung and melanoma are being targeted due to high incidence and number of deaths in Ireland.
Basket trials, which look at multiple disease types in the one study, continue to be a focus, such as CTRIAL-IE 16-19 ADD Aspirin, which encompasses 4 parallel cohorts covering breast, colorectal, gastro-oesophageal and prostate.
Over the course of the next 3 to 5 years we expect to see an increase in studies in breast, lung, melanoma and colorectal.
Investigator led trials
One area that we are very keen to encourage is investigator initiated interventional trials.
We currently support several of these types of trials such as Neo-Aegis, CyborD-DARA, PantHER, Panthera and the recently opened Paricalcitol trial. More details are available in our DSSG Digest.
These types of trials are very important. They enable investigators to pursue new avenues which are not solely reliant on pharmaceutical companies or international collaborative groups, yet may have a considerable impact for patients.
They are also important as part of our commitment to pioneering scientific discovery.
Share your ideas.
If you have an idea that you would like to pursue, we would like to hear from you.