專題討論11:癌症醫學的新進展

S11-2
癌症臨床試驗的重要性
楊志新 院長
臺大醫院癌醫中心醫院

  Conduction of clinical trials and the interpretation of the results form the basis of evidence based medical practice. This is especially important for cancer treatment. Cancer treatment guidelines are established according many clinical trials. The advances of cancer treatment thus were based on many randomized studies and large phase II studies. In addition to this obvious need for cancer clinical trials to improve cancer care, cancer clinical trials have become an important avenue for medical centers all over the world to acquire novel agents, before regulatory approval, for the patients in need. Due to the advances in our understanding of tumor biology and cancer drug pharmacology, we were much more capable to predict for early phase trial anticancer drug treatment efficacy based on preclinical studies, compared to many years ago. We were able to see more patients to respond in early phase studies. For late stage cancer patients without any meaningful useful treatment, clinical trials may give patients hope or even response that sometimes prolonged life. Provision of cancer clinical trials to cancer patients has become one of the important mission for comprehensive cancer center.