On Tuesday 2nd July 2024, over 60 industry and University representatives gathered at the University of Oxford’s BioEscalator for an OBN BioTuesday event to learn about the recent developments and opportunities in trials for cancer prevention.
In her keynote talk, Professor Sarah Blagden (Department of Oncology and lead of the Oncology Clinical Trials Office) outlined the advantages of cancer precision prevention trials that target interventions to particular groups of people at a biologically defined higher risk of developing cancer. These trials more rapidly and cost-effectively assess new interventions that aim to prevent or delay cancer and also enable informative experimental medicine studies that gain mechanistic insights into cancer development and how the intervention works.
In the following panel discussion, Kirsty Wydenbach, Head of Regulatory Strategy at Weatherden highlighted the need to bring the regulators with you, for example, when considering the use of surrogate biomarkers in place of traditional measures such as cancer incidence as trial endpoints.
Catherine Pollard, Senior Director of Strategic Operations UK at Moderna and Glen Clack, Chief Medical Officer at TheraCryf, representing the industry sector, voiced the view that while precision prevention in cancer falls outside the present industrial model for drug discovery in terms of regulatory and economic considerations, there are good parallels with the infectious disease vaccination model, and good potential for commercial opportunities.
Anna Fry, public representative, confirmed the receptiveness of people at higher risk of cancer to new preventative interventions and encouraged active patient and public involvement when developing new interventions to, for example, dispel any myths around perception of new medical opportunities for at-risk groups.
The discussion was very positive and continued afterwards at the drinks reception.