Drop mandatory fresh biopsies where blood or archival tissue would do
Many trials require a new tumour biopsy just to enter, even when the sample is only for research. Allowing blood tests or stored tissue instead would remove a painful and risky hurdle that puts many patients off.
Protocols classify each biopsy as essential (eligibility-defining, no alternative) or research-only; research-only biopsies become optional sub-studies, and eligibility biomarkers may be assessed on archival tissue or ctDNA where analytically validated. Screen-failure and refusal attributable to biopsy requirements are tracked and published.
- Trials enrol too few, too slowly · Fewer than one in ten adults with cancer joins a trial. Trials close for lack of patients, not lack of ideas.
- Toxicity and quality of life are undervalued · Trials measure how long people live, not how they live. Side-effects are under-reported and under-treated.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaUse tumour DNA in blood to decide when to pause treatment in metastatic cancer
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Shares Trials enrol too few, too slowly, Comprehensive genomic profiling, Liquid biopsy (ctDNA).
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Shares Foundation Medicine (Roche), Comprehensive genomic profiling, Liquid biopsy (ctDNA).