Marie E. Lamont: Lessons Learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic helps in Transforming Patient Access to Clinical Trials

Research out earlier this year confirms what many doctors had feared: Cancer screenings dropped significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study, published in the February 2022 edition of Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, examined data from the Ontario Cancer Registry in Canada. The results showed that in March 2020 the week-to-week rate of cancer diagnosis dropped by 34.3%. And this worries doctors, because over the last few decades, the cancer survival rates have improved, in part because of earlier detection of disease. [1] Doctors fear that this disruption to healthcare access may negatively impact early detection of cancers which may lead to serious problems later. Another aspect doctors worry about is that delayed diagnoses and treatments means that in some cases a patient’s diagnoses may not be brought to light until later stages – stage 3 and 4 – when cancer is more difficult to treat. Based on the available data, some experts predict a spike in new cancer diagnosis later this year and in 2023. The main reason, they believe, is pandemic-related, including lockdowns and fears of the coronavirus – which cause COVID-19. In addition to early diagnosis, the pandemic also stalled, delayed, or canceled clinical trials. Based on some estimates, this impacted as many as 60% of all oncology clinical trials and biological therapies in the United States. One big question remains, what are the real implications of stalling or canceling these clinical trials? In this episode of The Onco'Zine Brief, Peter Hofland, Ph,D. talk with Marie E. Lamont, the general manager and chief executive officer of Inteliquet, a company that strives to match patients to clinical trials, accurately and promptly – or, in other words, the company ensures that physicians and their patients have access to the latest and best clinical trials, using decision, making technology developed by the company. About The Onco'Zine Brief The Onco'Zine Brief is distributed in the United States via PRX (Public Radio Exchange). In the United Kingdom and Europe, the program is distributed via UK Health Radio (UKHR). And the program can be downloaded via most podcasts and streaming media services, including iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn, and iHeart Radio. For more information about The Onco'Zine Brief or how to sponsor or support this public radio broadcast and podcast, visit: http://www.oncozine.com to download our Media Kit or visit Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theoncozinebrief to support the program. For more information about cancer and cancer treatments, visit our online journal Onco'Zine at www.oncozine.com To sign up for The Onco'Zine Newsletter (open for residents of the United States only), text the word CANCER to 66866. Reference [1] Eskander A, Li Q, Yu J, Hallet J, Coburn NG, Dare A, Chan KKW, Singh S, Parmar A, Earle CC, Lapointe-Shaw L, Krzyzanowska MK, Hanna TP, Finelli A, Louie AV, Look Hong N, Irish JC, Witterick IJ, Mahar A, Noel CW, Urbach DR, McIsaac DI, Enepekides D, Sutradhar R. Incident Cancer Detection During the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2022 Feb 1:1-9. doi: 10.6004/jnccn.2021.7114. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35104788.