20 – Structures Supporting Cancer Clinical Trials

Abstract Cancer clinical trials provide the evidence on which sound oncology practice is based. Assuring rapid enrollment to clinical trials is a major goal of all sponsors and funders and depends to a great extent on the efficiency of the infrastructure that supports this research. Increasingly, National Cancer Institute- and biopharmaceutical-sponsored trials encourage the participation of physicians engaged in community practice, in addition to the more traditional involvement of academic institutions. The characteristics that ensure quality research in these varied practice settings are reviewed in this chapter and tools that facilitate enrollment are described.