Clinical cancer trials to be held for Wigan patients

The project is a collaboration between by The Christie and clinical trial patient recruitment company, Innovative Trials and the aim is to help speed up research so that effective new treatments come to market faster.

The programme will initially concentrate on raising awareness of clinical research among breast cancer patients living in or around Wigan, Oldham, Wythenshawe, Preston, Macclesfield and Stoke-on-Trent.

To make it easier for patients to get involved, they will be able to participate in the trials and access those treatments in local Christie cancer centres rather than travelling to the Trust’s main site in Manchester.

Penny Morrison, patient recruitment strategy director for Innovative Trials, said: “One of the most common challenges with clinical trials is finding enough eligible patients to take part. Part of the problem is that general awareness of clinical research - why it is important and what it involves - and trial opportunities is low. Another challenge is patient diversity.

“Not all patients respond to medical treatments in the same way, which means a lack of diversity limits opportunities to test the safety and effectiveness of new treatments in the widest range of patients.

“We are therefore delighted to be working alongside The Christie to tackle these issues.”

Clinical trials are an essential part of the drug development process. Every new treatment must be tested thoroughly to ensure they are safe and effective before they can be licensed and made widely available.

Trials that do not recruit or retain enough participants are at risk of failing, which leads to delays in treatments coming to market. Innovative Trials will use its expertise to interact with local communities and healthcare professionals to identify appropriate patients.

Once patients are enrolled in a clinical trial, the company will work with research teams to make sure patients do not drop out.

Prof Andrew Wardley, consultant medical oncologist at The Christie and project lead for this initiative, said: “We’re looking forward to working with Innovative Trials to give thousands of patients the opportunity to access new therapies and new combinations of therapies to help them improve their survival chances.

“It’s important that we’re able to offer our patients the best treatment and care, and a big part of this is access to clinical trials and the new treatments being developed.

“However, one of the challenges we face is making sure patients and their clinicians know what opportunities are available - fewer than 50 per cent of cancer patients recall having clinical trials discussed with them following their diagnosis.

“We hope this initiative will help to reduce such variation between providers so that more patients can benefit from new treatments at the earliest opportunity.”