10. Boosting Clinical Trial Participation
Clinical trials can be a good way to gain access to promising new cancer treatments, but overly restrictive entry criteria keep out many people who could benefit. Fortunately, that’s changing. This year, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute expanded trial eligibility criteria to include people with HIV, hepatitis B or C, kidney or liver impairment, prior malignancies and cancer that has spread to the brain. And such research is already yielding benefits. Scientists recently reported that the experimental targeted therapy tucatinib delayed disease progression and improved survival in people with advanced breast cancer with brain metastasis. Other studies found that people living with HIV—who are facing rising cancer rates as they age—can benefit from checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy.
