Submitted by Administrator on Tue, 12/03/2019 - 12:45
A new type of experimental trial, the Basket of Baskets trial has just launched in Cambridge to treat patients with different types of cancer with the same targeted therapy.
The trial uses a common molecular profiling platform to allocate patients to targeted therapies, based on the genetic features of their individual tumours; patients sharing the same tumour genetics, regardless of cancer type will receive the same therapy.
The aim of the trial is to screen 1,000 patients over two years, has just recruited its first patient in Cambridge and is already open in Paris and Barcelona.
This is the first time leading cancer centres of excellence across seven countries in Europe have worked together to set up and run a cancer clinical trial as a truly collaborative process to accelerate access to innovative treatments for patients. The collaboration which is a legal entity called Cancer Core Europe (CCE), brings together ground-breaking cancer researchers and clinicians from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK.
“We are excited to have started recruitment in Cambridge to the Basket of Baskets trial, which provides patients with the opportunity to have their tumour tested to see if they might be suitable to take part in a clinical trial of novel therapies”, said Dr Richard Baird, University Department of Oncology and the UK Principal Investigator of the trial.
Prof Carlos Caldas, Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University Department of Oncology, Director of the Breast Cancer Programme at the CRUK Cambridge Centre, and member of the Board of Directors of CCE added: “The Basket of Basket trial is a series of firsts: 1- the first multi-country investigator led early phase trial by Cancer Core Europe; 2- the first time leading European Cancer Centres across Europe have worked together to develop and deploy a multi-gene panel for patient stratification; 3- the first practical example of the uniqueness of the CCE consortium as a collaboration of top European Cancer Centres that in the past used to compete with each other.”