2014 Volume 60 Issue 3 Pages 210-219
Advances in biomedical research have created opportunities for innovative cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. Insights from the molecular mechanisms of disease enable investigators to identify new therapeutic targets and novel agents. A paradigm shift in oncology is on the way, from toxic chemotherapies to highly targeted therapies.
Translation of biomedical discoveries into significant advances in cancer care relies on effective clinical trials systems. Both industry-sponsored trials as well as publicly funded investigations have played different but complementary role to prove improved survival in leukemia, lymphoma, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. However, next generation of research infrastructures to explore the precision medicine may not be easily established.
Recently, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report to outline necessary, systematic changes for the Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program (COGs) to more efficiently design, review, and conduct studies. In response to the IOM report, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has launched the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), to facilitate the rapid initiation and completion of cancer clinical trials.
In this review article, the author would like to provide up-to-date information on the new cancer clinical trials system.
