First UK patient recruited for pioneering lung cancer drug trial at UHNM
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) has become the first NHS Trust in the UK to successfully recruit a patient onto a major new international small-cell lung cancer trial.
Teams from UHNM’s Oncology and Research and Innovation (R&I) departments are working with sponsor BioNTech SE to investigate whether combining a new immunotherapy drug called BNT327 into standard chemotherapy is more effective than the existing treatment.
It’s hoped that the pioneering, phase three randomised trial, ran in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will lead to better patient outcomes in this rare but aggressive form of cancer.
Dr Muthiah Sivaramalingam, consultant oncologist and principal investigator at UHNM, said: “Small-cell lung cancer is a rare but aggressive form of cancer that is normally treated with chemotherapy, but in the past twenty years since I’ve worked in oncology, there has only been one other research study into new treatments.
“BNT327 is so interesting to research because it combines both immunotherapy and an anti-angiogenic drug that blocks cancer blood vessel growth. Despite combining these two methods that we have traditionally used to treat cancer it’s a new and unique concept putting them together in one package.”
Patients enrolled onto the trial will be randomly selected to either receive the new BNT327 drug and chemotherapy or existing drugs alongside chemotherapy.
As well as looking into whether BNT327 with chemotherapy works better than the existing treatment, researchers will investigate how safe the new drug is, what happens to it in the body and how the treatment affects quality of life.
Jane Copestick, commercial research development officer, said: “We in UHNM’s Research and Innovation department were absolutely delighted to not only be chosen as one of the UK centres to host the trial, but also the first in the country to recruit a patient onto it, and only the second in Europe. This is a significant trial as before the recruitment process opened earlier this year, there was no research for the benefit of this patient population.
“A lot of work by teams across UHNM has gone into getting to this point and opening the trial including pharmacy, pathology, imaging, clinical technology, the chemotherapy team who administer the drugs, as well as the research practitioners who coordinate, deliver and oversee governance.”
Dr Sivaramalingam said: “Trials like this don’t come around very often, so I feel very privileged to take part. Securing this trail takes place at UHNM is down to the hard work and enthusiasm of our clinical teams and Research and Innovation department.”