Interview with Winette van der Graaf: enhanced patient participation in trials may help make cancer research more heterogeneous

ESMO Congress 2022. Winette van der Graaf, president of EORTC, talks about the importance and challenges of placing the patient at the center of clinical trials. She states that patients are usually highly motivated to participate in clinical trials. However, several challenges, such as logistics, communication issues, and geographic distance to a trial center, may prevent them from doing so. Moreover, the current strict enrolment criteria often exclude older patients from clinical trials. The result is that trials tend to be overly homogeneous, thus limiting the generalisability of the data. With an aging population, we need more elderly patients to participate in clinical trials. Read the full article here.