October 12 2021
A recent evaluation of the impact of trials sponsored and conducted by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) has indicated that over the course of four decades there has been statistically significant gains in patient survival through the conduct of NCTN clinical trials. Joseph Unger, PhD, MS, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center presented this information at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2021 Congress. This was a follow up to an assessment from 2019 of this data published on JAMA Network.
The collective organizations involved in the NCTN include NRG Oncology, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, SWOG Cancer Research Network, and the Children’s Oncology Group. These groups conduct trials that span across 2,200 institutions internationally and aim to achieve a common goal: to improve outcomes for patients with cancer and discover new and enhanced, safe and effective treatment options or alternatives to the current standards of care in oncology practice.
Researchers analyzed 163 phase 3 trials from the adult NCTN groups that included 108,102 patients. “Overall, 128 of the 163 trials showed some level of overall survival benefit favoring the experimental arm. Applied to patients through 2020, these results are estimated to have generated 14 million additional life-years at a federal investment cost of about $125 per life year," Dr. Unger reported. Projections on the rates in the future continued to incline drastically.
Read the article on MedScape