Best Practices For Conducting Multinational Clinical Trials | Page 16

There are some cancers that are more prevalent or only present in Asian
populations, including lung, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and gastric

Figure 9.

Oncology Clinical Trials Accounting For >10%
Each of All Oncology Trials in Each Country

cancers. There are high rates of smoking, and lung cancer is associated
with the highest cancer-related death rate for males in these countries.
Of the global HCC diagnoses, the men in these countries account for
3/4 of all diagnoses in men, and the women account for 2/3 of all
diagnoses in women.21 Hepatitis infection, a risk factor for HCC,
remains common with inadequate treatment in a number of Asian
countries. This region also accounts for more than half of the world’s
new cases of stomach cancer21 while 75% of esophageal cancers are
diagnosed in Asia, making it the 6th most common cancer in the region.23
These three cancers, in addition to breast cancer, are also the most
widely studied (clinicaltrials.gov, Figure 2). Each represented >10% of
the total oncology trials conducted in each country, and breast cancer
was the only other cancer that also represented that majority. Despite the
common occurrence, the standard of care and cancer treatment
guidelines can differ by country, site, and doctor. This may represent a particularly important research area where time should be taken to identify
the most appropriate site/PI during protocol development to ensure consistent standard of care and data quality.

Conclusion »
The large and growing populations in Asian countries provide a large and not fully accessed pool of patients for clinical trials. To achieve market
growth and appeal to international companies, international guidelines for clinical trials are increasingly being adopted in a number of Asian
countries, and the processes are becoming more standardized. In the meantime, international CROs with a strong presence in Asia, such as Clinipace
Worldwide, can help navigate the nuances of local regulatory and contracting processes and relationships across countries in multinational trials.
Centralized, transparent, and real-time access to data enables monitoring and ensures data quality across all facets of a clinical trial. Oncology
trials represent a particular opportunity to take advantage of large patient populations in Asian countries, particularly for exclusively prevalent
cancer types.

clinipace.com

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