Pierluigi Porcu, MD, professor, director, Division of Medical Oncology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Jefferson Health, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, discusses the need for diverse representation in clinical trials.

The end goal of cancer research is to find better mechanisms for treatment delivered through more effective and safer drugs, Porcu says. The purpose of clinical trials is to test new drugs in ways that are going to be meaningful in the real world, making it important to include large, diverse populations to better replicate patient populations who are treated outside of clinical trials, Porcu explains.

However, this has been a challenge because enrollment in clinical trials features with many obstacles and barriers, leading to some trial populations to not being representative of the real world, Porcu continues. This poses challenges in determining if treatments are equally effective across different populations, Porcu concludes.

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Pierluigi Porcu, MD, discusses the need for diverse representation in clinical trials.


Dr. Porcu on the Need for Diverse Representation in Clinical Trials

Pierluigi Porcu, MD, associate professor of internal medicine, Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC — James), discusses early research into the development of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL).

At the 2013 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, an abstract was presented by Porcu and his team about an animal model of CTCL. Porcu explains that CTCL is a malignant blood disorder that affects 15,000-20,000 patients in the United States. The disease manifests predominately in the skin with no known cause.

Porcu says the animal model that was presented at ASH is designed to discover the early steps of the development of the disease and will help researchers study new treatments.

Some of the results from the animal model have been reproduced in human patients, Porcu says. For example, the mice overexpress the cytokine interleukin-15, which causes an overproliferation of T cells. This has also been observed in human samples, providing a proof of concept that both the human model and the mouse model have parallel mechanisms of growth.

Pierluigi Porcu, MD, from The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC â€“ James), discusses early research in CTCL.

Pierluigi Porcu, MD,

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Dr. Porcu on the Need for Diverse Representation in Clinical Trials

Dr. Pierluigi Porcu Discusses CTCL Research