Accelerating cancer treatment optimisation: A multistakeholder roadmap from the Cancer Medicines Forum

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Clinical Pharmacology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Clinical trials assess drug efficacy and safety for regulatory approval but often leave questions about real-world optimal use unanswered.
• This knowledge gap is critical in oncology, impacting patient quality of life and the efficient use of expensive cancer therapies.
• Rising cancer incidence and prevalence necessitate better understanding of optimal dosing, duration, scheduling, sequencing, and combination treatments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine barriers and explore strategies for integrating treatment optimization research into the cancer clinical research framework.
• To foster multi-stakeholder collaboration for advancing treatment optimization in oncology.
• To provide recommendations for systematically embedding treatment optimization in oncology research.

Main Methods:

• Convened a multidisciplinary stakeholder workshop with representatives from governmental bodies, regulatory agencies, health technology assessment bodies, patient organizations, academia, industry, and clinicians.
• Facilitated collaborative dialogue to identify challenges and solutions for treatment optimization research.
• Synthesized discussions and recommendations from the workshop.

Main Results:

• Identified key barriers hindering treatment optimization research in oncology.
• Explored strategies for integrating optimization studies into the existing clinical research framework.
• Developed recommendations for policy actions and research practices.

Conclusions:

• Multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential to address the need for treatment optimization research in oncology.
• Systematic integration of treatment optimization into cancer clinical research is required to improve patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.
• Policy and research frameworks must be adapted to support ongoing optimization of cancer medicines.