Health system leaders weighing oncology research investments may be overlooking a core access issue: where patients can actually receive cutting-edge care.
In a recent episode of the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast,” Marwan Fakih, MD, division chief of GI medical oncology at Duarte, Calif.-based City of Hope and deputy director of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, outlined why expanding clinical trial networks is not just a research strategy, but a patient access imperative.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: For health system executives weighing whether to expand their clinical trial capabilities, what value proposition would you give them about being part of a research network?
Dr. Marwan Fakih: It’s [about] accessibility to patients. We owe it to our patients to provide cutting-edge treatment options when there are no standard options and improvement on the current standards of care. To improve standard of care, you have to be involved in clinical trials.
A clinical trial network is extremely important in getting those studies closer to home. Not every patient has the means to come to a faraway comprehensive cancer center, to enlist in a clinical trial and to get access to a novel treatment, right? We owe it to our patients to get those studies closer to them.
At the same time, frankly, there are some efficiencies with those. A large cancer center has multiple network clinics and other hospitals within its network. It makes more sense to open certain studies because the denominator of patients who are eligible for that study will increase. One has to be smart about which studies to open across the network and which studies — that are more demanding — may not be feasible in our clinical network and to keep those within the comprehensive center.
There’s no question our first-line studies, second-line trials and phase 3 trials should be accessible to our patients. Having communication between leaders of the different facilities within an enterprise is extremely essential to build on the synergies and strength that we have.
Listen to the full episode here.
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