Clinical trials to help treat cancer have been given the green light to reopen by the South East Scotland Cancer Research Network.

The Network announced today that any clinical trials in the region on hold because of covid-19 are now able to reopen, and that recruitment to new trials has also restarted, opening up more potential treatment options to patients.

Dot Boyle, network manager with the South East Scottish Cancer Research Network (SESCRN), said the “monumental” efforts of colleagues meant some trials were kept going during the pandemic and that since June, a range of other trials had resumed.

“We are currently engaged in over 100 clinical trials, half of which are open, with the other half now due to open imminently,” she said.

“Every day our teams work in collaboration with a range of partners to help facilitate more and more new trials, covering a range of different areas, including cancer of the bladder, breast and kidney.”

The ‘catastrophic and heart-breaking’ impact of pausing clinical trials during the pandemic had ‘taken away’ from some families by removing final treatment options, Cancer Research UK told healthandcare.scot last month.

Stefan Symeonides, a clinical lead for SESCRN said although the way some trials were delivered could be changed to meet enhanced infection control measures that allowed them to remain open, some patients who would have started treatment during the peak of the pandemic were unable to do so.

“We share the concern and frustration experienced by these patients,” he said, “which is why we are pleased that the recent easing of pandemic restrictions has allowed us to open trials back up again and widen patient access to other trials.”

Professor Charlie Gourley, honorary consultant in medical oncology at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital, said: “Clinical trials offer cancer patients new opportunities, either in addition to standard treatments, or after standard therapies have failed.

“They provide patients with hope and are a vital part of our armoury. The Network is rapidly reinstating these studies in order to offer our patients the best possible treatment options.”

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