There are 183 centers surveyed that conduct clinical research in oncology in Italy: 23% more than last year (from 149 to 183).
Almost 50% are located in the North (90), the rest in the Center (44 centers) and the South (49 centers).
About a third of the structures (36%, equal to 66 centers) carry out more than 20 trials per year, 12% more than 60.
However, the still unresolved issue of the lack of resources and personnel remains: 68% (124 centers) lack a bioinformatician and 49% (89) cannot count on statistical support.
Indispensable professional figures must be structured, such as clinical research coordinators (data managers), research nurses, biostatisticians.
And digitalisation, which allows trials to be speeded up and simplified, is still scarce: only 43% use a data processing system and 37% an electronic medical record.
The photograph is taken from the second edition of the Yearbook of Oncology Research Centers in Italy, promoted by the Federation of Italian Cooperative Oncology Groups (Ficog) and the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom), a real census of the structures that create trials on tumors in our country, presented today to the Ministry of Health.
March 14 is the National Day of Cooperative Groups for Oncology Research, promoted by Ficog, to raise citizens' awareness of the importance of independent clinical trials.
We need, experts warn, "a change of pace to support academic research, also because, today in Italy, only 20% of studies on new molecules against cancer are non-profit".
"It should therefore be highlighted - states Evaristo Maiello, president of Ficog - a clear reduction in the space for independent research. In our country, clinical studies not sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry have gone from 22.6% to 15% of the total. A decrease by over 7% in just 12 months, which risks severely impoverishing the non-profit research system".
In 2023, in Italy, an estimated 395,000 new cancer diagnoses were made.
The tumors on which the greatest number of trials are concentrated are gastrointestinal, breast, thoracic, urological and gynecological ones.
The strengthening of academic research infrastructures, underlines Maiello, "is fundamental to increase the resilience capacity of the healthcare system in the face of acute pandemics, such as Covid-19, and chronic pandemics, such as that represented by cancer".
The potential of oncology research in Italy is "really significant and our studies are at the cutting edge, but more public funding is needed - highlights Francesco Perrone, president of Aiom -. There are also strong critical issues in the availability of personnel and a solid infrastructure digital. These elements require a change of pace. Furthermore, studies must be envisaged that do not restrict attention to the efficacy and toxicity of a single drug or a single combination of drugs in a delimited segment of the natural history of the disease, but look at the "the entire patient care path.
It is necessary to reorganize the trials, creating adaptive protocols, which are updated with the evolution of diagnostic and therapeutic scenarios".
Another aspect concerns patient associations, as underlined by Elisabetta Iannelli, Secretary of Favo (Italian Federation of Voluntary Associations in Oncology): "The added value of the active collaboration of patient associations in the promotion, planning and implementation of clinical studies must be considered - explains -. It is necessary to collect data from different sources to understand patients' needs. For example, the PROs, the 'patient-reported outcomes', are indications coming directly from patients, without the intermediation or interpretation of health professionals or of other subjects other than the patient, without any filter that would distort its truthfulness. The indications contained in the PROs, detected through the use of standardized and validated questionnaires, are of fundamental importance - he concludes - to evaluate the well-being of patients, their state of health and management of therapies".
Schillaci, thanks to research, 60% of cancer patients are alive after 5 years, with
1 million recovered.
'It's an incentive to invest heavily in studies'
"Thanks to research and prevention, today in Italy 60% of patients are alive five years after diagnosis of cancer and one million people can be considered cured. These results give us confidence and constitute an incentive to invest strongly in research scientific research to ensure that patients can access innovative and safe therapies more quickly, as well as to ensure greater competitiveness of Italy on a global level".
Thus the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, in the preface of the Yearbook of Oncology Research Centers in Italy, promoted by the Federation of Italian Cooperative Oncology Groups (Ficog) and the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom).
"In this context - underlines the minister - the Decrees on Ethics Committees that I signed in the first months of my role as Minister of Health represent a decisive step forward. Promotion of research and the fight against cancer are two priorities on which I immediately firmly aimed at, in the broader scenario of a process of strengthening and relaunching the National Health Service".
With the National Oncology Plan, which "we have adopted and financed, we support research, prevention and strengthening the capacity to take charge, care and assist cancer patients".
Furthermore, concluded Schillaci, "to the funding for research supported by the Ministry of Health, also with the calls for targeted research, are added the investments that make use of the resources of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan".
Tumors, 14 million years of life gained in the USA through research. Oncologists, 'from non-profit studies only to 2020. They are an opportunity'
Clinical studies on tumors represent an additional therapeutic opportunity for patients and an investment for healthcare systems.
This is the message of the oncologists who, on the occasion of the presentation of the Yearbook of Oncology Research Centers in Italy promoted by the Federation of Italian Cooperative Oncology Groups (Ficog) and the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom), report an example: Nonprofit cancer studies resulted in an estimate of 14.2 million years of life gained in the U.S. population as of 2020, with an estimate for 2030 of 24.1 million years of life gained.
And this gain in terms of years of life corresponded to a cost in terms of public investment equal to $326 per years of life gained.
Clinical studies on tumors, underlined Ficog president Evaristo Maiello, "are therefore also an important opportunity for patients, who can access experimental therapies. In 2022 alone, 2540 patients were enrolled in 38 independent clinical studies, but there is a lack of a cumulative figure on the total number of patients enrolled annually in our country in these clinical trials".
Experimental studies "are talked about more today, but patients' knowledge and awareness of the meaning that participating in one of these studies can have is still insufficient. We must therefore - concludes Maiello - increase information".
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA