This session is a basic introduction to cancer treatments and their most common side effects and adverse reactions. The course provides an overview on cancer surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy we well as insights on the mechanisms of action of targeted therapies such as monoclonal antibodies, small inhibitory molecules, CAR-T cell therapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

In the second part of the session, participants will learn about the mechanisms of toxicity linked to the different categories of cancer therapy and how these are managed.

This course is not recommended for clinicians.

Patient Information Sheets (PIS) are a key document for potential participants to make an informed decision about whether to take part in a clinical study.  While there is clear guidance from the Health Research Authority (HRA) on content and regulatory requirements, PIS are customised for each clinical trial and the specific patient population. Choosing the right language and format for patient facing materials for research studies and clinical trials still greatly varies and depends on the skills and experience of the team putting them together.

Course tutors: Linda Von Neree, Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Lead, BRTU PPI Lead and Giulia Pellizzari, PhD, Lecturer/Education Lead, Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre.

This session gives a comprehensive overview of the clinical pathways cancer patients can take to be eventually referred for trial entry. The first part of the session spans across the diagnostic methods and staging of cancer and gives a brief overview of the common tests carried out prior to trial treatment.

In the second part of the session participants will learn about the importance of ensuring only eligible patients enter a trial and how eligibility criteria help to safeguard patients and differ amongst different phases of trials. They will also learn the importance of assessing treatment compliance and how every clinical intervention comes with a different set of challenges in collecting data about patient compliance.

This session, aimed at non-statisticians, will cover the most common primary outcomes measures used in early and late phase cancer trials.

Learning Outcomes:

Participants will learn what makes a good outcome measure, how outcomes measures are defined and what data need to be collected to assess the outcome, especially for tumour response assessment and time to event measures such as survival and disease (or progression) free survival.

A course to introduce delegates to the biology, diagnosis, staging, and treatments of cancer and how these relate to the main outcome measures used in cancer clinical trials (adverse events, response, survival, quality of life and other time-to-event endpoints). 

Target audience:

This is an introductory course suitable for recent MSc graduates or more experienced statisticians new to the field of cancer treatment trials.