There were no medical oncologists until a few decades ago. In the early 1960s, not only were there no such specialists, many practitioners regarded the treatment of terminally-ill cancer patients with heroic courses of chemotherapy as highly questionable. Physicians loath to assign patients randomly to competing treatments also expressed their outright opposition to the randomized clinical trials that were then relatively rare. And yet today these trials form the basis of medical oncology. How did such a spectacular change occur? How did medical oncology move from a non-entity and in some regards a reviled practice to the central position it now occupies in modern medicine? Cancer on Trial answers these questions by exploring how practitioners established a new style of practice, at the center of which lies the cancer clinical trial.

A readable guide for anyone who is considering therapeutic options in addition to standard cancer therapy. The book seeks to share knowledge about cancer clinical trials with people living with cancer, their families and loved ones.

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program has played a key role in developing new and improved cancer therapies. However, the program is falling short of its potential, and the IOM recommends changes that aim to transform the Cooperative Group Program into a dynamic system that efficiently responds to emerging scientific knowledge; involves broad cooperation of stakeholders; and leverages evolving technologies to provide high-quality, practice-changing research.

The second edition of Oncology Clinical Trials has been thoroughly revised and updated and now contains the latest designs and methods of conducting and analyzing cancer clinical trials in the era of precision medicine with biologic agents—including trials investigating the safety and efficacy of targeted therapies, immunotherapies, and combination therapies as well as novel radiation therapy modalities. Now divided into six sections this revamped book provides the necessary background and expert guidance from the principles governing oncology clinical trials to the innovative statistical design methods permeating the field; from conducting trials in a safe and effective manner, analyzing and interpreting the data, to a forward-looking assessment and discussion of regulatory issues impacting domestic, international, and global clinical trials. Considered by many as the gold standard reference on oncology clinical trials in the field, the second edition continues to provide examples of real-life flaws and real-world examples for how to successfully design, conduct and analyze quality clinical trials and interpret them. With chapters written by oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives, this volume provides a comprehensive guide in the design, conduct, monitoring, analysis, and reporting of clinical trials in oncology. NEW TO THIS EDITION: Outlines how to design clinical trials with and without biomarker testing—including genomics-based “basket” trials, and adaptive trials for all phases during treatment and quality-of-life trials Includes new chapters on immunotherapy trials, radiation therapy trials, multi-arm trials, meta-analysis and adaptive design, use of genomics, dose modifications and use of ancillary treatments in investigational studies, establishing surrogate endpoints, practical issues with correlative studies, cost-effectiveness analysis, and more Comprehensively covers all regulatory aspects in the pursuit of global oncology trials Digital access to the ebook included

The controlled clinical trial has become an essential part of the clinician's decision-making process. Clinical trials, however, still raise methodological problems that are important and at the same time controversial: subgroup analysis and interactions, meta-analy sis of similar trials, consideration of subjective clinical opinions and those of the public at large, assessment of quality of life, pre vention trials, and so on. In February 1987 we took our third step along the road to evaluating these issues in dialogues between cli nicians, psychologists, legal experts, and statisticians. The talks presented at the meeting were revised by the authors afterwards and have been rearranged by the editors to form a strictly organ 1 2 ized book. The two preceding meetings in 1978 and 1981 focused strongly on adjuvant therapy in primary breast cancer, but this top ic served merely as a nucleus in the third meeting. This meeting, although called the Third Heidelberg Symposium was forced to leave Heidelberg and in fact was held in Freiburg. Without the interest and enthusiasm of Professor Martin Schu macher and his colleagues in Freiburg the meeting would never have taken place. The meeting was generously supported again by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (Bundesministe rium flir Forschung und Technologie, BMFT) within the framework of the West German BMFT Breast Cancer Study Group. We are grateful, in particular, to Mr. Hans W. Herzog for his personal in volvement. Juni 1988 H. Scheurlen, R. Kay, M.