A study conducted by Syneos Health found that many of the traditional advertising rules often don’t apply for clinical trial recruitment, particularly on social media. Photos of doctors perform well, images of a suffering patient got more clicks, and a longer more informative ad got more clicks. The top barriers to participating in a trial were: transportation issues, lack of payment, and fear of receiving a placebo. (MM&M)
Public sees clinical trials as important, but burdensome
A recent survey of more than 12,000 patients and their friends and family found that the public sees clinical trial research as important, but doesn’t know much about the research process, and sees trial participation as burdensome. Federal agencies are actively exploring ways to make drug development more patient-focused, which could reduce the burden of participation and encourage greater trial enrollment. (Business Insider)
Parkinson’s clinical trials need early stage patients
A Florida scientist says sponsors and care providers need to recruit Parkinson’s sufferers as soon as they are diagnosed with mild motor features, before they require meds. Recent discoveries have given researchers hope that they are on a path toward effective treatments, but that won’t happen unless we have enough patients for clinical trials at the earliest stages of the disease. Currently, less than 3 percent of Parkinson’s patients enroll in clinical trials. (CenterWatch)
“Bottleneck” of immunotherapy combination trials: 1,000 trials needing 52,000 patients
Photo: A scanning electron microscope image of a single neutrophil (yellow), engulfing anthrax bacteria (orange) (Wikipedia).
A bottleneck of immunotherapy clinical trials has put the field’s advancement on hold. Over 1,000 clinical trials are lined up to test PD-1- or PD-L1-based combinations, projecting to enroll a total of 52,000 patients. According to Tom Schuetz, CEO of Compass Therapeutics, it’s impossible to enroll those trials, and we need to do a better job about evaluating these combinations preclinically. “We fundamentally believe in just doing a ton of preclinical experiments.” (Fierce Biotech)
Patient recruitment: a personalized approach
Contributed article by Mary Nguyen, Ph.D. I hadn’t always planned to go into clinical research. As I bioengineer, I was motivated by projects that could benefit patient outcomes. Since joining Neox, I am now directly involved in delivering innovative therapies to patients awaiting life-saving treatment. I recently had the opportunity to Read more
IBM’s Watson for Clinical Trial Matching system increases study enrollment
Mayo Clinic is an early user of the Watson for Clinical Trial Matching, an IBM system which uses artificial intelligence to quickly and accurately match patients to clinical trials for which they may be eligible. Mayo experienced an 80 percent increase in enrollment to their clinical trials for breast cancer while using this system. (Mayo Clinic news wise)