Assessing the Current Landscape of Supportive Care in Oncology
A study found there were 216 active supportive care clinical trials and that industry sponsors rarely provided funding.
Supportive care is an important part of a patient’s cancer journey and can be applied from diagnosis through the end of treatment. This service aims to prevent and manage any side effects that stem from treatment or the cancer itself to improve quality of life. Supportive care can include psychological and nutritional support, rehabilitation, palliative and social care, and integrative therapies.1
Assessing the Current Landscape of Supportive Care in Oncology / C Davids - stock.adobe.com
Although supportive care in oncology has been seen to provide several benefits to patients, investigators from the Hoag Family Cancer Institute and the University of California Irvine have noticed recent social media posts suggesting “there is waning interest in supportive care in the field of oncology in comparison to the development of therapeutics.”
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To further investigate this, the researchers conducted a study to assess the state of supportive care clinical trials in comparison to therapeutic clinical trials and other basic science trials. Data from the study was presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2024, held September 13 to 17 in Barcelona, Spain.2
For the study, investigators conducted a search for active, ongoing clinical trials on January 1, 2024. The search terms were “supportive care” in combination with “cancer,” as well as other keywords, including “chemotherapy,” “immunotherapy,” and “targeted therapy.” Trials were included if they had clinical endpoints and collected data on tumor type, intervention, industry sponsorship, and country of origin.
There were 216 supportive care clinical trials included in the study after exclusion criteria were applied. The investigators found that there were only 3 trials sponsored by industry. Most of the trials took place in the United States, followed by France, Canada, Taiwan, and Spain. The most common tumor types being studied were advanced cancer, breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and genitourinary cancer.
Of the interventions included in the supportive care clinical trials, 9.3% were mobile or online applications, 9.3% were exercise or fitness, 7.9% were dietary or nutrition interventions, 5.6% were behavioral or cognitive, and 4.2% were peer support. Primary endpoints included quality of life, depression or anxiety, FACT score, symptoms, and physical activity. The vast majority of trials were randomized, followed by single-arm studies.
“A review of ClinicalTrials.gov reveals that slightly over 200 supportive care clinical trials are ongoing through the world, primarily in the United States,” the authors concluded. “Industry sponsors rarely fund supportive care trials. Most supportive care trials were randomized, and are evaluating quality of life or anxiety/depression.”
READ MORE: Oncology Resource Center
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