African Consortium for Cancer Clinical Trials: Assessing, Profiling, and Building Cancer Clinical Trial Capacity in Africa

Abstract

PURPOSE Cancer now kills more Africans than malaria. Despite this statistic, Africans remain drastically underrepresented in cancer clinical trials. BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) launched the African Consortium for Cancer Clinical Trials to foster cancer clinical trials involving African populations by assessing, profiling, and building clinical trial capacity in African hospitals. METHODS BVGH developed a checklist tool for hospitals to self-assess their current clinical trial capabilities and compare these capabilities with those that are essential for performing trials at international standards. The checklist evaluates a site’s metrics across 6 categories: clinical trial experience, regulatory processes, staffing, cancer diagnostic and treatment capabilities and equipment, pharmacy management, and research management systems. The checklist was distributed widely across Africa. Any interested site, regardless of its ability to treat patients with cancer, was invited to complete the self-assessment. RESULTS To date, BVGH has received checklists from 40 institutes, of which, 34 offer cancer treatment services. These institutes are distributed across 16 countries and are composed of public and private hospitals, universities, and nonprofit research institutes. Of the sites assessed, more than 85% had performed a clinical trial in the past, with drug studies being the most commonly performed trial. Sites frequently had research coordinators, nurses, and data managers on staff, whereas biostatisticians, database programmers, and epidemiologists were the most commonly unavailable personnel. Whereas the majority of the sites’ laboratories were accredited, fewer than half had the equipment needed for clinical research. More than 70% of the sites had the necessary pharmacy infrastructure, whereas 60% had the requisite research management systems. CONCLUSION With Africa’s cancer mortality rate predicted to double by 2040, more cancer clinical trials must be performed in Africa. Our assessments reveal African institutes’ common areas of strength, as well as opportunities for improvement. Of importance, our results demonstrate that Africa can perform cancer clinical trials.