Welcome to your May ECMC newsletter 29 May#33 |
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2020 Reflections
As life continues in this strange interlude, like many others, I have been reflecting on how a major worldwide event like a pandemic suddenly shifts your priorities. We have also had to do this in the Programme Office, with some vital projects, like EC Trial Finder development, temporarily put on hold and resource diverted to help us understand the impact of the epidemic on the network. |
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While a lot of things have undoubtedly changed, some have stayed the same. Cancer has not gone away, patients of today still need trials, the patients of tomorrow still need new treatments, and we are all still part of the incredible network.
As well as the focus on COVID, we are thinking about what the network can do collectively to help get as many trials up and running as quickly as possible, and how we can pave the way for new trials to come in. We have been doing this via the Centre Business Leads Forum and the up-coming Network Leads Forum, and will keep you posted on what actions we are taking.
We are also planning for the future beyond restart. Whilst planning for the quinquennial review has been temporarily paused, we are forging ahead with the Network Intelligence Strategy, so we can be sure that we have the right information to showcase the full capability of the network. We are thinking about what we can learn from the pandemic, including how we can work with regulators to capitalise on the experience of being able to set trials up in days rather than months, and how we can move more of study protocols closer to the patient.
I also want to salute all of you who are working in healthcare settings and facing the true reality of COVID-19 and its broader impact on cancer patients on a daily basis. It is quite humbling to see your commitment to patients despite the incredibly challenging working conditions. A heartfelt thanks from all of us at the Programme Office. |
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Celebrating the work of research nurses in the ECMC network
To coincide with 'International Nurses Day' and with 2020 being 'The Year of the Nurse', we spoke to two research nurses working in the ECMC network to find out more about their roles and how COVID-19 has impacted them.
Hannah Holdsworth (Leicester ECMC) and Emily Blyth (Glasgow paediatric ECMC) shared the most rewarding and challenging aspects of their roles. A rewarding aspect they both spoke on was their interactions with patients who are considering or taking part in early-phase trials, and how they are able to offer them experimental treatments when there would otherwise be no other treatment options.
Read the full interviews |
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Centre Business Leads Forum Review The first ECMC Centre Business Leads Forum meeting was held in early May 2020, with 32 staff from across the network joining. It had been recognised that all ECMCs are working hard to support the national effort on COVID-19 alongside their cancer research, leading to a number of challenges both in managing trials that remained open and preparing to restart paused trials in the coming weeks.
Given the substantial local differences in the response to COVID-19 and the plan for re-start, it was a fantastic opportunity to use the convening power of the network to bring together the Centre Business Leads from across the adult and paediatric networks to discuss current challenges and the mitigation plans from an operational perspective. Challenges discussed included resources (staff shortages and social distancing measures), support services and monitoring of trials.
The agreed next step following the meeting is creating an online platform so this community can continue to engage with each other. The creation of this group demonstrates the power of the ECMC network in bringing people together and allowing the site to work together to ensure a synergistic approach for early-phase cancer trials to be back up and running as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, please contact Sharan Sandhu: sharan.sandhu@cancer.org.uk |
Our Network Intelligence Strategy The ECMC Programme Office hosted a virtual Network Intelligence Strategy kick-off webinar on 14 May with 91 attendees across 2 sessions. Invited representatives were from the clinical trial community including Centre Leads, clinicians, scientists, nurses, operation leads and R&D from the adult and paediatric ECMCs, as well as Network funders, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and peer organisations such as NIHR, NCRI and HRA.
This work will create a new ECMC network intelligence framework to enhance and replace the existing reporting process. A mixture of stakeholders will be invited to help us understand what information we should collect to build a comprehensive and accurate view of the network for this new intelligence service. In addition, we would like to explore how we can work with our peer organisation to reduce duplication of effort to gather data and maximise the use of information we collect.
This webinar was a kick-off for collaborative working with the network and other partners to co-create the requirement of the service. In the next few weeks, the participants will be invited to provide their input in small group consultation activities to help shape the ideal new network intelligence solution.
If you have any questions, please contact David Ayland: david.ayland@cancer.org.uk |
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AACR 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting I & II Last month saw the first virtual AACR Annual Meeting, with over 54,000 people around the world registered to join the free 2-day online meeting. ECMC was present at the event with members from the network presenting and listed as co-authors on presented studies across the two days.
Those involved were: Johann S. de Bono - The ICR London and Royal Marsden HospitalPeter Schmid - CRUK Barts CentreUdai Banerji - The ICR LondonThomas Powles - CRUK Barts CentreJames Spicer - King's College, LondonDavid Cameron - The University of Edinburgh
Videos from the sessions are available on the platform for on-demand viewing -Catch up now
AACR Virtual Meeting II will be held on 22-24 June.Free registration will open soon. |
ASCO 2020 This year's ASCO conference is now taking place as a virtual meeting from 29-31 May and we're looking forward to having 20+ abstracts and poster presentations which have members from our network as co-authors.
Make sure you're following us on Twitter to preview a full list of the abstracts from the network that will be presented this weekend.
Register for ASCO20 Virtual |
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ACCELERATE Paediatric Strategy Forum on CAR-T Cells 16-17 November 2020 The 6th Multi-stakeholder Paediatric Strategy Forum, organised by ACCELERATE in collaboration with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and with the participation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will focus on CAR T-cells in children and adolescents.
Paediatric Strategy Forums have been created to evaluate the current state of the science, facilitate dialogue and provide an opportunity for constructive discussions to assure development of medicines in the best interests of children and adolescents with cancer.
Participation is possible only by invitation and submitting an Expression of Interest by Monday, 6 July 2020.
Submit your expression of interest |
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Useful Links and Resources - COVID-19 Guidance |
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If you have anything you’d like to feature in a future edition, or if you have feedback on what you’d like to see in the newsletter, please e-mail chantelle.endeley@cancer.org.uk | |
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