Inside Ohio State’s fully remote telehealth pancreatic cancer trial

Columbus-based Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute has launched a fully remote clinical trial for pancreatic cancer patients across the U.S.

Led by Sameek Roychowdhury, MD, PhD, an oncologist at the OSUCCC-James and a professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, the trial is testing a drug that targets fibroblast growth factor receptors-positive pancreatic cancer. 

Dr. Roychowdhury shared more about the trial with Becker’s and what it means for the future of clinical trials. 

Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Question: How did your team adapt the operational infrastructure of a traditional clinical trial to make this telehealth-based, fully remote model possible for pancreatic cancer patients nationwide?

Dr. Sameek Roychowdhury: We utilized our experiences from COVID-19 pandemic where we emergently adapted the current clinical trials to make them available for ongoing participants. As the pandemic restrictions loosened, most cancer centers reverted to previous practices for clinical trials, i.e. in-person everything. However, the lessons were learned.

Q: What processes or safeguards are in place to ensure data quality and protocol adherence when partnering with care teams across multiple states?

SR: We acquire radiographic imaging and blood work results from the local healthcare system, which each meet quality standards for cancer care. We spend some extra time to coordinate and acquire these tests, but these end up providing cost savings compared to travel or opening 50 additional clinical trial sub-sites.

Q: From an operational standpoint, what were the biggest logistical or regulatory challenges in launching a nationwide remote trial? 

SR: Introducing a new workflow took some getting used to. But once we demonstrated how each step and component could be rationally completed, it put everyone’s mind at ease. 

Q: Are virtual, telehealth-based models the future of clinical trials? 

SR: We absolutely believe that telemedicine in clinical trials can revolutionize research for cancer and other diseases. Telemedicine for therapeutic clinical trials can potentially solve many barriers. It can open doors for rare cancers or rare subsets of cancers, which is a key barrier for precision oncology. Being rare is no longer a barrier for drug development. It can enable access to patients throughout the country. We are bringing the trial to the patient instead of bringing the patient to the trial.

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