Wednesday, April 22, 2020 A guest editorial first published in the "Cancer Letter" While the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) groups remain open for business during the pandemic, it’s not business as usual. For good reason, clinical trials are taking a backseat to clinical care. Leadership and members themselves face significant challenges treating oncology patients, as attention and resources are diverted to minister to those with COVID-19. Some are quietly creating formulas to consistently determine who gets chemotherapy, tumor resection, irradiation, or transplant. It’s an unprecedented time. But for now, we plan to continue to treat patients with cancer who are already on study, and as circumstances permit, to accrue new patients to existing trials, and even to continue to open new, high-priority studies. Our enrollment levels began to decline during the week of March 23, and we expect a decrease in overall accrual to continue for the duration of this pandemic. Some of our key member institutions cannot currently conduct research or have to limit clinical trial enrollment to those patients likely to get an “immediate benefit.” No treatment or population science trial has completely closed due to coronavirus. However, a few studies have been suspended—one NCTN trial due to a drug shortage; one due to concerns over patients coming in for infusion of possible placebo; and three National Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) studies due to disruptions in cancer screening and cancer care delivery. Keep reading: https://cancerletter.com/articles/20200410_1/
