May 7, 2018 – Cancer and Clinical Trials

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Anchor lead: A new estimate shows just how few people with cancer are entering clinical trials, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Science magazine has just published a comprehensive view of the cancer landscape, with one observation that if immunotherapies are going to come to full fruition, a lot more people will need to enroll in clinical trials. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Nelson: There’s never been a better time if one had cancer to participate in a clinical trial evaluating a new treatment. They’re estimating that in 2017 there are 469 immunotherapy cancer trials that would need 50,000 participants, accruals they’re called, to the clinical trials to pull it off, and are we starting to get to the place where we can’t complete the trials because we can’t get enough people to participate. You still have an environment where only about 4% of adults in the US are participating in trials.  :31

Nelson says many current trials are enrolling people around the world as well as domestically, which should help clinical trials of promising new therapies proceed more quickly. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.