According to a report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Group program was inefficient, underfunded, and filled with red tape. The NCI program contains 3,100 institutions in the U.S., Canada, and Europe and is made up of academic cancer centers, researchers and community doctors that work together to conduct trials on cancer treatment. The report found that group trials often run out of money before they can study patients’ follow up from cancer treatment. Dr. Hsien-Yeang believes that the upfront payment for these trials is the reason they run out of funding. The report also commented on the funding for industry trials. Industry trials are sponsored and give out payments as each patient hits a “milestone”.
The report also mentioned several ways to fix the current funding problem. Dr. David M. Dilts of the Knight Cancer Institute had this to say, “Perhaps it is time to consider more closely following the pharmaceutical industry model of progress payments.” Dr. Mills also said this would get rid of the habit of using new trials to fund old ones. Another option, mentioned by Dr. Seow, is to take part in fewer cooperative group trials and focus on industry-funded ones. However, she also mentioned that cooperative group trials help answer the bigger questions of how to improve cancer patients’ overall care. To read more about the current cancer study funding problem, click here.