Biggest Challenge of Drug Development in Lymphoma is Enrolling Patients on Clinical Trials

There are currently 1230 clinical trials actively enrolling patients in 1419 worldwide centers. Since January 2009, a total of 437 new lymphoma studies were registered and are currently enrolling patients, of which 238 trials are enrolling patients in the United States.

Dr. Anas Younes is an oncologist, lymphoma expert, and a Professor of Medicine at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is asking for help in promoting high priority clinical trials that are likely to make an impact on patients’ lives.

“We are now accepting patients with newly diagnosed Hodgkin lymphoma for SGN35 + ABVD study. This novel combination may change the future of therapy for newly diagnosed patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. SGN35 is a targeted monoclonal antibody that preferentially kill the tumor cells. SGN35 has a good single agent activity in heavily pretreated patients with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma. Please spread the word and help referring patients.”

He is also initiating a discussion regarding why so few cancer patients enroll in clinical trials. Some thoughts? Regional, general oncologists are often not well informed as to appropriate clinical trials and do not typically include discussions of clinical trials in their review of treatment options. Having a fee for service business model and making medicine a business doesn't help either when patients are also customers.

For more information, go to:

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01060904?term=SGN35&rank=8