Researcher: Patients with Mesothelioma, Other Rare Cancers Would Benefit from Faster and Smaller Clinical Trials

A radical shift in the way clinical trials are conducted may be the key to getting new drugs to market, according to one researcher. This concept may especially provide a positive outlook for patients of rare diseases and cancers. Marie-Cecile Le Deley, M.D., Associate Professor at the Institut Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France, told an organization of professional oncologists during a conference that performing smaller, more frequent clinical trials will help get drugs in the hands of patients sooner, especially those drugs for rare cancers like mesothelioma. Le Deley explained to her colleagues at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress that her research has shown a benefit to reducing current clinical requirements that mandate a need for large test samples and definitive evidence over the course of many years. Le Deley is proposes to reduce the number of people that participate in a clinical trial, to relax the evidential criteria that requires trials to achieve a certain statistical success and to speed up the time of the trial process. Patients who have rare and fatal cancers may have a prognosis that brings as little as a few months of life expectancy. Because some clinical trials require years to complete, that duration does not help these kinds of patients. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. There are only 2,000 to 3,000 cases diagnosed a year in the United States. Current clinical trial regulations demand long testing periods to ensure more a...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Research & Clinical Trials Source Type: news