Oncology Clinical Trials

An ideal health care system relies on efficiently generating timely, accurate evidence to deliver on its promise of diminishing the divide between clinical practice and research. There are growing indications, however, that the current health care system and the clinical research that guides medical decisions in the United States falls far short of this vision. The process of generating medical evidence through clinical trials in the United States is expensive and lengthy, includes a number of regulatory hurdles, and is based on a limited infrastructure. The link between clinical research and medical progress is also frequently misunderstood or unsupported by both patients and providers. The focus of clinical research changes as diseases emerge and new treatments create cures for old conditions. As diseases evolve, the ultimate goal remains to speed new and improved medical treatments to patients throughout the world. To keep pace with rapidly changing health care demands, clinical research resources need to be organized and on hand to address the numerous health care questions that continually emerge. Improving the overall capacity of the clinical research enterprise will depend on ensuring that there is an adequate infrastructure in place to support the investigators who conduct research, the patients with real diseases who volunteer to participate in experimental research, and the institutions that organize and carry out the trials. To address these issues and better understand the current state of clinical research in the United States, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation held a 2-day workshop entitled Transforming Clinical Research in the United States. The workshop, summarized in this volume, laid the foundation for a broader initiative of the Forum addressing different aspects of clinical research. Future Forum plans include further examining regulatory, administrative, and structural barriers to the effective conduct of clinical research; developing a vision for a stable, continuously funded clinical research infrastructure in the United States; and considering strategies and collaborative activities to facilitate more robust public engagement in the clinical research enterprise.

Clinical trials are the engine of progress in the development of new drugs and devices for the detection, monitoring, prevention and treatment of cancer. A well conceived, carefully designed and efficiently conducted clinical trial can produce results that change clinical practice overnight, deliver new oncology drugs and diagnostics to the marketplace, and expand the horizon of contemporary thinking about cancer biology. A poorly done trial does little to advance the field or guide clinical practice, consumes precious clinical and financial resources and challenges the validity of the ethical contract between investigators and the volunteers who willingly give their time and effort to benefit future patients. With chapters written by oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives, Oncology Clinical Trials, provides a comprehensive guide for both early-career and senior oncology investigators into the successful design, conduct and analysis of an oncology clinical trial. Oncology Clinical Trials covers how to formulate a study question, selecting a study population, study design of Phase I, II, and III trials, toxicity monitoring, data analysis and reporting, use of genomics, cost-effectiveness analysis, systemic review and meta-analysis, and many other issues. Many examples of real-life flaws in clinical trials that have been reported in the literature are included throughout. The book discusses clinical trials from start to finish focusing on real-life examples in the development, design and analysis of clinical trials. Oncology Clinical Trials features: A systematic guide to all aspects of the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of clinical trials in oncology Contributions from oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives Hot topics in oncology trials including multi-arm trials, meta-analysis and adaptive design, use of genomics, and cost-effectiveness analysis Real-life examples from reported clinical trials included throughout

This book describes the evolution of treatment in oncology through the lens of approximately 250 landmark clinical trials. The well-designed clinical trial is essential to the practice of medicine. There is no field that has embraced or been transformed more by the clinical trial than oncology. Each primary cancer site has a remarkable story that can be told through clinical trials. For example, patients who presented decades ago with soft tissue sarcoma of the extremities would invariably undergo limb amputation. The landmark National Cancer Institute study by Rosenberg et al. randomized patients to limb sparing surgery followed by adjuvant radiation therapy compared with limb amputation. This study helped change the standard of care by allowing most patients to retain their functioning limbs with an improvement in quality of life and no compromise in overall survival. Such major clinical trials for common malignancies including breast, prostate, lung, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and gynecologic cancers are discussed. Because oncology is multidisciplinary, this book should be of interest for radiation oncologists, surgeons, medical oncologists, and other physicians interested in learning more about the landmark trials that have shaped oncology.

The third edition of the bestselling Clinical Trials in Oncology provides a concise, nontechnical, and thoroughly up-to-date review of methods and issues related to cancer clinical trials. The authors emphasize the importance of proper study design, analysis, and data management and identify the pitfalls inherent in these processes. In addition, the book has been restructured to have separate chapters and expanded discussions on general clinical trials issues, and issues specific to Phases I, II, and III. New sections cover innovations in Phase I designs, randomized Phase II designs, and overcoming the challenges of array data. Although this book focuses on cancer trials, the same issues and concepts are important in any clinical setting. As always, the authors use clear, lucid prose and a multitude of real-world examples to convey the principles of successful trials without the need for a strong statistics or mathematics background. Armed with Clinical Trials in Oncology, Third Edition, clinicians and statisticians can avoid the many hazards that can jeopardize the success of a trial.

Clinical trials are the engine of progress in the development of new drugs and devices for the detection, monitoring, prevention and treatment of cancer. A well conceived, carefully designed and efficiently conducted clinical trial can produce results that change clinical practice overnight, deliver new oncology drugs and diagnostics to the marketplace, and expand the horizon of contemporary thinking about cancer biology. A poorly done trial does little to advance the field or guide clinical practice, consumes precious clinical and financial resources and challenges the validity of the ethical contract between investigators and the volunteers who willingly give their time and effort to benefit future patients. With chapters written by oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives, Oncology Clinical Trials, provides a comprehensive guide for both early-career and senior oncology investigators into the successful design, conduct and analysis of an oncology clinical trial. Oncology Clinical Trials covers how to formulate a study question, selecting a study population, study design of Phase I, II, and III trials, toxicity monitoring, data analysis and reporting, use of genomics, cost-effectiveness analysis, systemic review and meta-analysis, and many other issues. Many examples of real-life flaws in clinical trials that have been reported in the literature are included throughout. The book discusses clinical trials from start to finish focusing on real-life examples in the development, design and analysis of clinical trials. Oncology Clinical Trials features: A systematic guide to all aspects of the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of clinical trials in oncology Contributions from oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives Hot topics in oncology trials including multi-arm trials, meta-analysis and adaptive design, use of genomics, and cost-effectiveness analysis Real-life examples from reported clinical trials included throughout

Written by leading experts, 'Fast Facts: Clinical Trials in Oncology' will enhance the reader’s ability to critically evaluate published evidence. Assuming little or no prior knowledge, the book sets out clearly the fundamental features of clinical trials. The key attributes of Phase I–III trials of pharmaceutical products are described, as are trials of surgical procedures, radiation therapy and advanced therapies. The processes and documentation required to set up and conduct a trial are outlined, and the authors describe how trial data and real-world evidence are used to improve care. Although this concise colorful book focuses on oncology, the principles apply equally to interventions in other areas of practice. It will prove invaluable to medical, pharmaceutical and allied health professionals who want, or need, an overview of how contemporary clinical trials are designed and conducted.

Cancer Clinical Trials: Current and Controversial Issues in Design and Analysis provides statisticians with an understanding of the critical challenges currently encountered in oncology trials. Well-known statisticians from academic institutions, regulatory and government agencies (such as the U.S. FDA and National Cancer Institute), and the pharmaceutical industry share their extensive experiences in cancer clinical trials and present examples taken from actual trials. The book covers topics that are often perplexing and sometimes controversial in cancer clinical trials. Most of the issues addressed are also important for clinical trials in other settings. After discussing general topics, the book focuses on aspects of early and late phase clinical trials. It also explores personalized medicine, including biomarker-based clinical trials, adaptive clinical trial designs, and dynamic treatment regimes.

In cancer research, a traditional phase II trial is designed as a single-arm trial that compares the experimental therapy to a historical control. This simple trial design has led to several adverse issues, including increased false positivity of phase II trial results and negative phase III trials. To rectify these problems, oncologists and biostatisticians have begun to use a randomized phase II trial that compares an experimental therapy with a prospective control therapy. Randomized Phase II Cancer Clinical Trials explains how to properly select and accurately use diverse statistical methods for designing and analyzing phase II trials. The author first reviews the statistical methods for single-arm phase II trials since some methodologies for randomized phase II trials stem from single-arm phase II trials and many phase II cancer clinical trials still use single-arm designs. The book then presents methods for randomized phase II trials and describes statistical methods for both single-arm and randomized phase II trials. Although the text focuses on phase II cancer clinical trials, the statistical methods covered can also be used (with minor modifications) in phase II trials for other diseases and in phase III cancer clinical trials. Suitable for cancer clinicians and biostatisticians, this book shows how randomized phase II trials with a prospective control resolve the shortcomings of traditional single-arm phase II trials. It provides readers with numerous statistical design and analysis methods for randomized phase II trials in oncology.