Trust improves take up of cancer clinical trials

Dr Steve Woby, research and development manager at Pennine Acute Trust

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has helped the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer Research Network (GMCCRN) increase the number of cancer patients recruited for clinical research trials.

In the last two years, the Trust has seen over an eight fold increase in the number of cancer patients it has successfully recruited to clinical research trials that are on The National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN) portfolio.

The NIHR Portfolio is a database of high-quality clinical research studies that are eligible for support from the NIHR Clinical Research Network in England.

Between April 2008 and March 2009 the Trust recruited 88 patients into cancer trials. Over the same period two years later (April 2010 to March 2011), it had increased this number to 740.

Dr Steve Woby, research and development manager at Pennine Acute Trust, said: “For the majority of the year we had just one dedicated cancer research nurse to work across our four main hospital sites.

“We realised that we needed more nurses to support trials but the only way we could secure more Clinical Research Network funding was to show that we could improve our recruitment.

“So we decided to change our strategy to focus what resources we had on high recruiting studies to increase our overall recruitment and attract more investment from the Network.

“I’m pleased to say that it worked. Over the last two years we’ve easily achieved the Cancer Network’s aim of 10% of all our cancer patients into studies. This year it was about 40% of the approximately 1800 new cancer patients we saw.”

Because of this successful recruitment, the Trust was able to bid for Network funding for more research staff from Greater Manchester Comprehensive Local Research Network (GM CLRN) and GMCCRN. The Trust now has 10 dedicated cancer research nurses working across its four hospital sites.

Mr Woby added: “This investment in new staff has made a real difference to the studies the Trust can support. With the extra nurse support, we’ve been able to increase not just the number of studies we carry out but also the complexity of the studies.

“These extra nurses have also meant that we’ve been able to open six more haematology trials with a dedicated haematology research nurse based at our state-of-the-art haematology unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital which opened last year.

“It has also allowed the Trust to plan to open Rochdale Infirmary to cancer patients and we’re now able to recruit patients at the site.

“The research nurses are very much part of the multidisciplinary teams and work closely with their investigators and with each other to identify suitable patients, ensure they meet recruitment deadlines and identify areas for new research. It is their hard work and dedication that has helped make this happen.”

It’s not just in haematology where the Trust has seen increases in recruitment; it has had a large increase in colorectal recruitment with 75 patients already recruited into studies in the first three months of this year.

Prof Nigel Bundred, Clinical Lead for GMCCRN, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for all the staff involved in cancer research at Pennine Acute Trust.”