Leukemia & Lymphoma Society works with Dana-Farber Institute for clinical trials

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is working in tandem with the Dana-Farber Institute to establish a network of sites for clinical trials of blood cancer therapies.

Entitled the Blood Cancer Research Partnership, the work will bring clinical trials closer to where patients live, while helping them to address the need for more patients to take part in studies.

LLS chief mission officer Louis J. DeGennaro said: “Having to travel long distances from home to a major medical center is a major deterrent to patients' participation in cancer clinical trials.

“Most cancer patients are treated by oncologists in their local community. This partnership will bring trials closer to where patients live. We are optimistic that this program will increase trial enrollment, more rapidly advance innovative blood cancer therapies and save lives.”

Eleven potential sites have been earmarked for the trials, which are set to cover New York, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, California, Florida, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Washington State.

LLS will have two seats on the steering committee formed to identify the trials that will be conducted by the network, while the agreement requires that particular milestones need to be met, such as the number of trials and number of patients involved in each of them.

These trials will be either Phase I or II and patient accrual will take place across an 18-month period.

A range of different clinical trial proposals are under consideration, with many focussed on chronic lymphocytic leukemia, myeloma and stem cell transplant.

Blood Cancer Research Program co-director Irene Ghobria said: “I believe this partnership provides a unique opportunity to deliver innovative clinical trials to patients closer to home.

“It also creates a new pathway of collaboration between community oncologists, academic centers and foundations to improve cancer therapy for patients throughout the United States.”

The LLS is the globe’s largest voluntary health agency committed to blood cancer and is aiming to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma.

As well as this, LLS funds blood cancer research around the world, helping specialists to gather new knowledge about the disease.