New Tool to Speed Cancer Therapy Approval Process Available

Although cancer remains a leading cause of death in America, it can take up to 12 years to bring a new anti-cancer agent before the FDA and the success rate for approval is only five to 10 percent. That means many research hours and dollars are wasted chasing avenues that will not bring fruit. The National Cancer Institute’s Translational Research Working Group (TRWG) developed a set of tools that it believes will improve that process. The tools, known as “Pathways to Clinical Goals” are published in the September 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

“The NCI supports a great deal of excellent translational research, but inefficiencies arising from a lack of communication and coordinated effort prevent many promising leads from reaching clinical trials and eventual approval,” said Lynn Matrisian, PhD, a special assistant in the Office of the Director, NCI. Matrisian co-chaired the TRWG, which was formed in 2005 with the goal of accelerating the pace of translational cancer research. Publication of the Pathways is expected to be a major step forward in this process.

Release date: September 15, 2008
Source: American Association for Cancer Research