Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the United States, yet patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have limited effective treatment options, often offering only modest improvements in survival. The landscape for NSCLC treatment is changing rapidly, however, and many new targeted and immunotherapy agents are being studied in NSCLC clinical trials. Low participation in these Cancer Clinical Trials (CCT) however continues to be a significant problem.
Barriers to CCT participation, such as lack of communication about the patients’ desire to participate in trials and/or provider’s often limited knowledge about the availability of relevant clinical trials, slow the pace of development of effective therapeutic agents for NSCLC patients. To address this, Carevive Systems developed new product functionality designed to overcome these and other barriers and thus improve point-of-care referrals to lung cancer clinical trials. This new functionality is being piloted in a multi-site clinical research study that will enroll approximately 100 cancer patients with Stage IV and/or recurrent NSCLC, along with their oncology care providers. Participating institutions include the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center, Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA and Bon Secours Cancer Institute in Richmond, VA. A 2-part intervention will pair certified continuing education (CE) with use of the new Carevive functionality aimed at addressing identified barriers at both the patient and provider level. The ultimate goal of this study is to increase referral to and enrollment in clinical trials through this .
How the Carevive Platform Works
Carevive Systems has adapted its existing rules-driven Care Planning System (CPS™) to enable identification of relevant clinical trial opportunities for each patient at the point of care, based on his/her specific clinical characteristics, and to then present these options along with relevant education for provider and patient discussions. Participating cancer centers will employ the newly adapted Carevive CPS to collect patient data, which are then analyzed by Carevive’s proprietary clinical algorithms to determine eligibility for locally available clinical trial opportunities. This information is presented as a draft personalized care plan for oncologists to give their NSCLC patients, including 1) general information regarding clinical trial participation and 2) specific education for patients and their families regarding the trials for which they are eligible to participate. To ensure oncology teams are prepared to mentor patients on their clinical trial care plans, providers will complete an online accredited training course on novel targeted and immunotherapy agents and current NSCLC clinical trials. Training materials were developed by lung cancer content experts, including Improving Clinical Trial Awareness in NSCLC: Pilot Testing A Novel Healthcare IT Platform for Incorporating Education at the Point of Care. A pre-test post-test design will be used to evaluate patients’ and providers’ clinical trials knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, patient willingness to participate and provider referral practices. Rate of referrals to and enrollment in clinical trials will be compared to historically low rates of clinical trial participation among lung cancer patients.
Our goal for this tool is to provide an easy, accessible and effective way to increase the number of referrals made to clinical trial and subsequently increase clinical trial enrollment. Carevive’s Chief Clinical Officer, Carrie Stricker, said, “When we kicked off this project with our lung cancer expert faculty they were very excited about opportunity to improve inconsistent awareness of trials both within and outside of their institutions, and pre-screen patients for eligibility before they even present for a visit.”
While research participation in this study is no longer available, the CME-accredited training is FREE and available to the oncology community. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about how to use this new functionality in your practice
Course topics include information on 1) The Role of Biomarkers in the Management of NSCLC, 2) Overview of Immune-Oncology, 3) Investigational Targeted Agents in NSCLC, 4) Investigational Immunotherapies in NSCLC, 5) Immune-Related Adverse Events and 6) NSCLC Clinical Trials.
