Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Clinical Studies in Europe

Abstract

Investigators from Europe have always played an active role in the clinical development of new treatment strategies and innovative drugs, and they have made valuable contributions to establishing new treatment standards for patients with NSCLC. The most recent results of the IALT study are particularly noteworthy because they mark a first step toward postoperative, adjuvant chemotherapy of NSCLC. Clinical research in Europe prepared well for its tasks over the three decades since 1975, giving rise to a large number of national and supranational high-quality, high-performance cooperative groups. As a result of their close connections with national tumor centers, and especially their clinical and diagnostic units, these groups clearly meet the increasing requirements of current and future clinical research. A good example is the growing cooperation between the EORTC, the primary European organization for clinical cancer research, and highly renowned North American study groups as well as national tumor centers. And there is no doubt that the political changes of the last 15 years have expanded Europe’s capability to perform high-quality clinical trials even further, irrespective of the differences in framework conditions for research that are still evident between the European regions. Rather, border-crossing clinical research in Europe could be seriously threatened by the ever-increasing legal and bureaucratic requirements while research budgets are being reduced.