Stakeholders want more adaptive trials

Several stakeholders called for wider use of adaptive trial designs during a Wednesday hearing held as part of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee's 21st Century Cures initiative. Roy Herbst, chief of medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center, suggested the committee work to standardize practices for establishing large-scale, collaborative trials. Herbst, also co-chair of the Phase II/III Lung-MAP trial for squamous cell cancer, recommended the committee increase the per patient reimbursement rate for trials that include biomarker evaluation and develop a regulatory framework for advanced diagnostics.

The not-for-profit Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR) led the development of Lung-MAP, which includes upfront genetic screening and is testing multiple drugs simultaneously (see BioCentury, Nov. 4, 2013). ...