Revitalising cancer trials post-pandemic: time for reform

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant risk to the health of cancer patients, compromised standard cancer care and interrupted clinical cancer trials, prompting dramatic streamlining of services. From this health crisis has emerged the opportunity to carry forward an unexpected legacy of positive reforms to clinical cancer research, where conventionally convoluted approvals processes, inefficient trial design, procedures and data gathering could benefit from the lessons in rationalisation learned during the pandemic.

COVID‐19 and cancer: Dichotomy of the menacing dilemma

“…Studies will aim to unravel how COVID‐19 modulates immune responses in cancer patients, potentially impacting tumor progression. Conversely, the effect of cancer‐related immune dysregulation on COVID‐19 outcomes should also be explored 73,219 . Third , the long‐term consequences of COVID‐19 infection, often referred to as “Long COVID,” raise intriguing questions.…”

Developing Therapy for Every Kid With Cancer – Summary of a Scientific Session at the 2023 ASCPT Meeting

“…These changes may be challenging, but the world recently witnessed the willingness of healthcare providers and scientists to change conventional approaches to drug development to meet the challenges of a worldwide pandemic. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) public health emergency, the world observed the design, development, and emergency authorization of COVID‐19 vaccines in under a year, as noted by Morton et al 10 . The creation of these vaccines is proof positive that adjustments can be made to standing developmental, regulatory, institutional, and hospital processes without compromising scientific integrity.…”