Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain.
Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India.
Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2022 Sep 1;16(3):117-122. doi: 10.1097/SPC.0000000000000605. Epub 2022 Jul 22.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed several challenges to cancer research including halting of trials, reduced recruitment and protocol violations related to inflexible processes followed in clinical trials. Researchers adopted innovative measures to mitigate these problems and continue studies without compromising their quality. This review collates these adaptations that could well continue after the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced researchers globally to adopt innovative measures to overcome the challenges of the pandemic. These included protocol amendments to adjust to the pandemic and travel restrictions, and increased use of digital technologies. 'Virtual' clinical trials were conducted increasingly with adaptations in ethics and regulatory approvals, patient recruitment and consenting, study interventions and delivery of study medications, trial assessments, and monitoring. Many of these adaptations are safe and feasible, without compromising study quality and data integrity. Although these may not be universally applicable in all types of research, they bring many benefits including more diverse patient participation, less burden on patients for study procedures and reduced resources to conduct trials.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected cancer research adversely; however, learnings from the pandemic and adaptations from researchers are likely to improve the efficiency of clinical research beyond the pandemic.
目的综述：COVID-19 大流行给癌症研究带来了一些挑战，包括临床试验中试验暂停、入组减少和与僵化流程相关的方案违反。研究人员采取了创新措施来减轻这些问题，并在不影响质量的情况下继续研究。本综述收集了这些在大流行后可能会持续下去的适应性措施。
最近发现：COVID-19 大流行迫使全球研究人员采取创新措施来克服大流行带来的挑战。其中包括调整方案以适应大流行和旅行限制，以及增加对数字技术的使用。“虚拟”临床试验越来越多地进行，其伦理和监管批准、患者招募和同意、研究干预措施和研究药物的提供、试验评估和监测都有所调整。这些适应性措施中的许多都是安全可行的，不会影响研究质量和数据完整性。虽然这些措施在所有类型的研究中并非普遍适用，但它们带来了许多好处，包括更多样化的患者参与、减少患者在研究程序上的负担以及减少进行试验的资源。
总结：COVID-19 大流行对癌症研究产生了不利影响；然而，从大流行中吸取的经验教训和研究人员的适应性措施，可能会提高临床研究的效率，使其超越大流行。
