The Case for Immunotherapy Trials That Reflect the Real World of Metastatic Melanoma

Source: Cancer Therapy Advisor, November 2019

Ever since the dawn of the clinical trial, critics have questioned whether the people being studied represent the actual patients who will take a drug in the real world. In other words, how applicable are the results from a carefully chosen cohort to the entire spectrum of patients with comorbidities?

That question takes on new urgency in an era of expensive immunotherapy treatments, especially among the public agencies that make financial decisions about what to reimburse: These officials seek solid evidence a therapy is going to be effective for most of the patients who will take it.