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NCRN Briefing Meeting - 20th September 2006, London
Click here to download the PowerPoint presentations from this meeting.
Added 03/10/2006 by Carl Johnston NCRN Director
We are delighted to announce that Dr David Cameron, from Western General Hospital and the University of Edinburgh, has accepted the offer of appointment as the NCRN Director and is expecting to take up the role in September.
David is well known within the cancer research community from his involvement with the breast cancer research portfolio. He is a member of the Breast Cancer CSG as well as many adjuvant trial steering groups including UK TACT, TEAM, TANGO, AZURE and the international HERA trial. He is also PI on the TACT2 trial and co-PI on the Will Weekly Win taxol trial. Others will have worked with David in his roles as SE Scotland SCRN network clinical lead, Clinical Lead for Research, or member of the NCRN Operational Steering Group. As is apparent therefore, David is extremely well qualified to lead NCRN into its next phase and will bring his commitment and great experience in collaborative research into the organisation.
His transition of clinical activities from Edinburgh to Leeds will be a gradual one but he will be participating in all major NCRN activities by the autumn and will be involved in the other key personnel decisions of the next several months. The Coordinating Centre team and Max Parmar, Bob Haward and Rick Kaplan as Associate Directors look forward with enthusiasm to his arrival.
Added 19/06/2006 by Rachel Moser Increasing Participation in Cancer Trials
The latest publication from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), commissioned by the NCRN, examines what stops people with cancer from joining research trials, and ways to increase participation.
Two systematic reviews were commissioned by the NCRN and undertaken by reviewers at CRD. CRD aims to provide NHS decision makers with information on the effectiveness of interventions and the delivery and organisation of health care.
The first systematic review looked at the literature relating to the barriers, modifiers and benefits involved in participating in RCTs of cancer therapies as perceived by health professionals and patients. The second reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of any interventions to increase cancer patient participation in RCTs.
The reviews found: - Existing research fails to identify in a clear, reliable and consistent way the reasons for not participating in cancer trials. However, themes were identified around which questions can be asked by those planning trials, to help improve participation rates. The involvement of patients and health professionals when identifying potential obstacles to participation could be beneficial.
- Few interventions were shown to improve participation in trials. There is a clear need for further research into the range of strategies that might increase participation. Ways to overcome obstacles also need to be developed and high quality research undertaken to assess how well they actually work.
Full details are published in CRD reports [31] and [32].
These can be downloaded free of charge from the CRD website at http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/crdpublications.htm. The full press release and a short summary report, are also available
Added 17/03/2006 by Liz Pittendreigh
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