The Limerick Cancer Trials Group (LCTG) is responsible for making clinical trials available to people with cancer in the Mid West region. Clinical trials examine the benefit of new cancer drugs but can also examine the benefit of other interventions e.g. an exercise programme, or people’s quality of life or issues when cancer treatment is finished.
As a result of past trials run by cancer experts in our region, new life changing cancer treatments and interventions are available for patients. We plan to increase the number of cancer trials we have open so that more patients can have access to new drugs and interventions which may be of benefit to them. We will need more staff members in the LCTG to do this safely.
Limerick has a high number of people living in deprivation and a high number of people from ethnic minorities. Research has shown that it is difficult for these people to be involved in clinical trials. By working with health professionals with expertise in this area, and with patients themselves, we will develop ways to make it easier for these patients to be involved in clinical trials.
LCTG will focus on trials in common cancers that affect the majority of patients in our region. For less common cancers other trials are open around the country. To ensure our patients have equal access to all trials, we will develop strong links with other hospitals so that our patients can be included in their trials. We will develop new technology working with experts in UL to make it easier to do this.
We need specific staff with certain skills to run clinical trials to the highest standard. We will start a new training plan linking with UL and other networks in Ireland to train and educate our staff.