Update: ASCO working hard to expand the number of clinical trial sites

[Joan37]

At its annual meeting this year in June, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) gave patient advocates an update on the TAPUR clinical trial, which is its first trial. The trial was rolled out about 18 months ago.

The TAPUR trial (Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry) allows us to obtain FDA-approved drugs free-of-charge by cutting out the red tape when we are no longer benefiting from any standard treatment. A total of 17 drugs yielding 15 different targeted options for therapy are available, and the drugs do not have to be approved for metastatic breast cancer.

In just taking a drug, we are considered as being enrolled in TAPUR. We can continue to use the drug as long as it is working.

ASCO is working hard to expand TAPUR sites across the United States, and not only to major medical centers but also to local community hospitals. They also want to make it easy for hospitals to become trial sites and patients to participate.

TAPUR now has 101 sites in 20 states, up almost threefold from last year. It recently added eight centers in 36 locations:

*Fox Chase Cancer Center – Pennsylvania, 1 site

*Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Inova Health System – Virginia, 6 sites

*Sutter Cancer Research Consortium – Northern California, 9 sites

*The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, a Cedars Sinai Affiliate – Southern California, 3 sites

*The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center – Texas, 5 sites

*The University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center – Alabama, 1 site

*Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami – Florida, 7 sites

*Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University – Georgia, 4 sites

In TAPUR, patients can try drugs based on genomic test results, and ASCO is still looking at ways to obtain funds to help patients cover the cost of the test when insurance is not sufficient. However, if you already have had the test, you may be able to use those results, or an immunochemistry test for some proteins may be sufficient.

Learn more about TAPUR and how it works by reading last year’s story in SHARE's Mets Matters newsletter ( sharecancersupport.org/2016... ), visiting the TAPUR website at tapur.org and speaking with your oncologist about whether TAPUR could be option for you.