King's College London

A new review led by Professor James Spicer argues that some reforms in cancer care and research undertaken due to the pandemic have left a positive legacy and that could improve the post-COVID conduct of clinical cancer research.

Following the implementation of lockdown restrictions, cancer patients were identified as a vulnerable group requiring protection from COVID. This meant a significant change to cancer care procedures and clinical trial processes to protect patients. The commentary, published in the British Journal of Cancer, reviews the impact of these changes and argues that they provide an opportunity for some positive reforms, including streamlining trial procedures and patient visits.

One example of this can be found in the rise of telemedicine during the pandemic – including online reviews with patients at home – which have been much more widely used in general clinical care and, according to the authors, should be applied where appropriate in clinical trials.

The administrative burden and delay associated with trial approval processes were also addressed during the pandemic to accelerate prioritised trials such as ones for COVID vaccines. This provides hope that, with the will and sufficient resources, these improvements could be applied more generally to future trials.

Such changes were often associated higher patient satisfaction with clinical trials, likely due to the reduction in travelling time and expenses for check-ups and trial tests – a common barrier for people who want to participate in such trials.

The authors also explain how a centralised approach, where all tests are conducted at one clinical trial centre, dissuades patients who live further away or lack the means to make such trips. Removing these barriers by allowing tests to be conducted at other sites could, therefore, create a more geographically and demographically diverse pool of clinical trial participants.

Read the full findings in the British Journal of Cancer.