On October 20, the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform and Friends of Cancer Research hosted the 2010 Conference on Clinical Cancer Research, where key stakeholders came together to address specific challenges in clinical cancer research and discuss potential solutions proposed by expert panels.
Panelists and participants represented the range of stakeholders in the cancer community, including senior officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as well as thought leaders from academia, patient advocacy organizations, and the life sciences industry. FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg and NCI Director Dr. Harold Varmus offered keynote remarks, and four panel discussions focused on:
- Expanding the use of adaptive clinical trial design in oncology;
- Innovative and efficient pre-clinical testing;
- Incorporating pain metrics into oncology clinical trials; and
- Using patient-generated data and samples to develop evidence for targeting approved treaments.