International Clinical Trials Day
On International Clinical Trials Day, we take a look at the work of research and development teams throughout Cardiff and Vale University Health Board over the past year.
During that time, the Health Board’s Research and Development staff have played a critical role in global research efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, having recruited around 2,250 participants to approximately 25 COVID-19 clinical trials.
The Health Board is currently implementing the Combining Influenza and COVID-19 Vaccination (ComFluCOV) Study, at the Bayside Mass Vaccination Centre, which is looking at how effective it is to give a COVID-19 vaccine at the same time as the seasonal flu vaccine.
In March, the Health Board was the first in the UK to open the RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY) trial, which found that the low-dose steroid treatment, Dexamethasone reduces deaths of hospitalised patients with severe respiratory complications of COVID-19.
It was the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19, and Cardiff and Vale UHB was a leading recruiter to the trial with patients enrolled at the University Hospital of Wales and University Hospital Llandough.
As part of a separate arm of the RECOVERY study, in October a patient at University Hospital Llandough became the first in Wales to receive a transfusion of monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19. The arm of the trial aimed to determine the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies in preventing COVID-19 from entering the cells of patients infected with the virus, and preventing patients from becoming more severely unwell.
Other COVID-19 studies that the Health Board’s researchers have contributed to include the CLARITY research study, which revealed new evidence that common inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment is linked to patients producing a reduced COVID-19 antibody response; the Rapid-19 study which gave new insights into common symptoms and prevalence of COVID-19 in children; the PRINCIPLE Study which aimed to identify effective COVID-19 treatments for older people with symptoms of the disease; and the GenOMICC COVID-19 Study, analysing the genes of people who have had the virus to discover why some experienced mild or no symptoms while others became extremely ill.
Despite the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, research staff across the organisation have continued to delivering an array of ongoing research and development activity. In 2020/21, the Health Board recruited approximately 6,000 participants to around 390 studies, which included being the UK lead for the world’s largest ever research trial looking at the implications of how patients are treated with oxygen in intensive care units.
In February, the Health Board announced that it would deliver the VICTOR and PROMise blood cancer trials as part of the Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) Network, a group of 12 centres across the UK funded by blood cancer charity, Cure Leukaemia to deliver clinical trials that aim to transform outcomes for patients with blood cancer.
The VICTOR clinical trial, which is funded by Cancer Research UK, and led by Dr Richard Dillon from Guy’s Hospital, London, will examine the efficacy of venetoclax-based treatment in treating certain groups of older patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). If found to be effective, the treatment could spare future patients some of the more toxic effects of traditional intensive chemotherapy.
The PROMise clinical trial will assess the clinical benefit of a new combination of drugs in improving quality of life for high-risk myelofibrosis patients.
Len Richards, Chief Executive of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: “On International Clinical Trials Day, I’d like to acknowledge and say how proud I am of the R&D teams here at Cardiff and Vale UHB who’ve done an absolutely brilliant job over the course of the pandemic, contributing to science, contributing to the treatments that we’ve found are effective in managing COVID-19 patients going forward. That contribution has been on a global scale, we’ve been a part of many international trials and our ambition is to continue doing that.”
“Today’s research is tomorrow’s treatment, and we must use the achievements of our research and development teams as a platform from which we can continue pushing the boundaries of healthcare to identify new, effective treatments for the people of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and beyond.”
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Research and Development department is funded by Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales, which works in partnership with the NHS, universities and stakeholders to fund, support and increase life changing research.