The EORTC is pleased to announce the successful implementation of SPECTAcolor, ‘Screening Patients for Efficient Clinical Trial Access’ - the first Pan European collaborative molecular screening platform for colorectal cancer patients. SPECTAcolor proves the logistical feasibility of the infrastructure that was built to run next generation trials in a multinational setting.
The links to the application shortcuts can now be found in the Investigator Area section, available from the menu here above.
Imaging technologies are very useful in evaluating a patient’s response to cancer treatment, and this can be done quite effectively for most tumors using RECIST, Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors. However, RECIST works well for tumors located in soft tissue, but not so well for cancers that spread to the bone, such as is the case for prostate and breast cancers.
A special issue of the European Journal of Cancer (EJC) presents detailed information on the numerous topics covered by the 1st EORTC Cancer Survivorship Summit held this past January in Brussels, Belgium.
The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and the Brain Tumor Center at the University Hospital Zurich receive 2‘000‘000 USD award to study long-term survival in glioblastoma, a deadly form of brain cancer.
Soft tissue sarcoma is rare and heterogeneous, and accounts for just around one percent of all cancers. Though rare, it is potentially life threatening, and few patients with metastatic disease realize long term survival. For dedifferentiated liposarcoma, the median survival was recently reported as only 13.9 months. So the question is raised, can treatment for dedifferentiated liposarcoma be improved?
Azanta A/S, a Danish specialty pharmaceutical company, announced the initiation of a randomized pivotal phase III trial with Nimoral for treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The study is led by the EORTC in partnership with the Danish Head and Neck Cancer Association (DAHANCA) and sponsored through an educational grant by Azanta A/S.
ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) has announced their position on the Data Protection Directive.
Dr Denis Lacombe, Director EORTC Headquarters, spoke with ecancer.tv about the EORTC’s SPECTA, Screening Patients for Efficient Clinical Trial Access, initiative during WIN 2014. He discussed the SPECTA initiative and perspectives for effective cancer drug development.
Drug developers are facing the perfect storm. They are confronted with major patent expiries, increased payer scrutiny, changing priorities, shifting business models, increased risk averseness, increased clinical trial costs, not to mention issues concerning R&D productivity. There needs to be a better way to identify new candidate drugs.
