Sir Bobby Robson Foundation
The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation has provided funding to Newcastle Clinical Trials Unit, for a cancer trials team. The Foundation is a fund within the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Charity that aims to find more effective ways to detect and treat cancer.
The new team will work with investigators to design and develop trials whose findings will benefit patients with cancer in the region, nationally and internationally.
The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation Clinical Trials Design Team, funded by a £433,838 grant, will help answer important questions about cancer by ensuring research is designed in the best way possible. Find out more about the Clinical Trials Design Team
This exciting news has resulted in a TV interview and a number of online articles, links to these can be found below:
Meet the team
- James Wason - Professor of Biostatistics, Project Lead
- Helen Hancock - Director of CTU
- Dawn Teare - Project Lead
- Miranda Morton - Senior Trial Manager
- Chrissie Butcher - Senior Trial Manager
- Svetlana Cherlin - Design Team Biostatistician
How/when to contact us
We would recommend that you contact the team early so that we are able to help you think through the research questions, aims of the research, methodology and outcomes of the study. We will work with you on all aspects of your research proposal including:
- design
- research methodology
- identifying suitable sources of funding
- involving patients and public
Please contact: SBRF.NCTU@ncl.ac.uk
What to expect
When you contact the design team we will arrange to meet with you; this meeting will usualy be face to face. During this meeting we will discuss your research ideas and plans. We can also discuss the possibility of collaboration to enable delivery of the trial.
Current NCTU Trials in Patients with Cancer
PROACT: Can we prevent Chemotherapy-related Heart Damage in Patients with Breast Cancer?
CI: Dr David Austin
Haplo: Evaluation of efficacy, outcomes and safety of CD45RO+ memory T cell add-back following CD3 TCR/CD19 depleted haematopoietic cell transplantation from an HLA-partially matched donor in paediatric patients with primary immunodeficiencies
CI: Professor Sophie Hambleton
Sarcosight: A randomised controlled trial of fluorescence guided resection in patients (adults and children) with sarcoma
Upcoming events
- Clinical Trials Educational Workshop - Date tbc
- International Clinical Trials Day Event May 2025; date and programme to be confirmed
- Webinar: the importance of considering both quantitative and qualitative evidence in pilot and feasibility study progression criteria, and guidance on best practice. February 2025. Link and further details pending.
Past events
- Clinical Trials Educational Workshop - held Wednesday 9 September 2020
- Clinical Trials Educational Workshop - held Tuesday 23 February 2021
Blogs
- Clinical Trials in Oncology
- Innovative Designs for Oncology Clinical Trials
- What are feasibility/pilot studies?
- Phase I and II Oncology Trial Design
Publications
Developing and testing high-efficacy patient subgroups within a clinical trial using risk scores - Statistics in Medicine, 39(24): 3285-3298
Practical guidance for planning resources required to support publicly-funded adaptive clinical trials. BMC Med 20, 254 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02445-7
Preventing Cardiac Damage in Patients Treated for Breast Cancer and Lymphoma: The PROACT Clinical Trial. JACC: CardioOncology 2024, epub ahead of print.
Developing a predictive signature for two trial endpoints using the cross-validated risk scores method. Accepted by Biostatistics (in-press) arXiv preprint http://arxiv.org/abs/2007.01680
Operational complexities in international clinical trials: a systematic review of challenges and proposed solutions https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/4/e077132
Utilising high-dimensional data in randomised clinical trials: A review of methods and practice https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/26320843231186399