Team: Marije Faber, Marissa Zwan, Robert Huiberts

The aim of ADORE Clinical Research Support (ACRS) is to strengthen the pipeline of therapeutic development in both Oncology and Neurology, by sharing resources, leveraging on each other’s expertise, and investing in staff that allows cross-discipline activities.

Amsterdam UMC Oncology, (Neuro)Surgery, and Neurology departments perform state of the art clinical trials leading to publications in high impact journals (e.g., The Lancet, NEJM, JAMA, JCO). Execution of clinical trials requires a solid management infrastructure, including sufficient dedicated staff with (medical discipline and trial) expertise. Currently, within the ADORE research groups, clinical trial management is almost exclusively organized within single departments; existing resources are generally insufficient and there is little or no cooperation between departments to exchange personnel and expertise, except for three departments with an established Clinical Trial Office (i.e., Hematology, (Neuro)Surgery and Medical Oncology).
Current developments in the fields of Oncology and Neurology open new chances to collaborate and mutually strengthen each other. For example, implementation of immune therapy in the field of neurologic (auto-immune) diseases opens new possibilities for therapy but require a close collaboration with respect to expertise with these intervention in oncology. Exchange of expertise is also necessary for monitoring neurologic side effects of novel anti-cancer cellular therapies. Leveraging on the parallels between Oncology and Neurology, these developments urge the need for a more integrated and supportive clinical trial approach within the broader context of Adore.
Furthermore, both disciplines want to increase the number of investigator-initiated-trials based on own scientific laboratory research. These proof-of-principle, often first-in-human trials, require novel clinical trial designs to obtain sound results timely with limited number of patients. Therefore, methodologic and statistical support for project design as well as dedicated trial coordination for the set-up and initiation and specialized nurses for the execution of such early phase trials is crucial and should be available within the clinical trials support unit.