Cancer clinical trials and research

Research and clinical trials are very important to the overall outcomes of patients. This is because each new cancer therapy has to go through a rigorous testing process before being offered to patients as an established and approved treatment option. This includes radiotherapy techniques as well as anticancer medicines.

There are different phases to researching a new treatment or intervention and this is generally divided into three phases.

Phase I

These are studies looking at medicines or intervention in the very early stages of their development. The studies are designed to discover the safe dosages of this intervention, and what side effects to expect.

Phase II

These are studies that establish how well a new proposed treatment works on a particular cancer / cancers

Phase III

These are studies that compare a new treatment with established treatments.

Our research teams also conduct smaller studies that are designed to aid the running of some of the studies in one of the phases of research mentioned above:

Pilot and feasibility studies

These can done for any phase of clinical trials. They are normally a smaller version of the main study designed to:

either assess whether a bigger version will work (pilot) or
to answer a specific research question before the main study can run (feasibility)

As part of your care and treatment you may be approached about taking part in a clinical trial or a research activity.

Research teams

Early phase team

This team delivers:

all Phase I studies for solid cancers
most of Phase II studies for solid cancers

Based at the Sir Bobby Robson Clinical Trials Unit, this dedicated clinical research team delivers human trials of potential new cancer treatments.

Newcastle is home to one of 18 Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres in the UK, and also a CRUK Centre recognised for the delivery of complex trials.

Early phase trials do try to match the “right patient to the right trial”.

The team is closely linked to researchers at Newcastle University in the Newcastle Centre for Cancer, to enable “bench to bedside” research to improve cancer treatments.

Late phase team (oncology haematology research)

Delivering:

all Phase I, II and III studies for haematological (blood) cancers
some Phase II studies for solid cancers
all Phase III studies for solid cancers
radiotherapy based clinical trials

The team aims to provide a wide range of research trials, to try and provide as many patients as possible with access to suitable clinical trial.

Clinical activity is delivered within wards, cancer day-units or cancer outpatient departments.

We have strong links with the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) through the local clinical research network for the North East and North Cumbria (LCRN NENC), which allows us to carry out a balanced portfolio of clinical trials to cover most if not all disease areas that fall into the 4 categories above.

The team also works closely with the Centre for Cancer Research at Newcastle University, as well as a wide range of industry partners.