By GREGORY ZELLER //
A Long Island hospital has earned key National Cancer Institute approvals, opening the doors to two frontline clinical trials.
Oceanside’s Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital, the Long Island flagship of the New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System, has been greenlighted by the NCI’s Central Institutional Review Board to join the National Clinical Trial Network, a distinguished collection of prestigious clinics and organizations across the United States and Canada.
As a network affiliate, Mount Sinai South Nassau can participate in clinical trials that test new treatment approaches, clear paths toward regulatory approvals of new therapies and otherwise set new standards of cancer care.
The hospital is wasting no time putting its new status to good use, announcing this week its participation in two cutting-edge trials: a “randomized phase III trial” comparing breast cancer treatments and an assessment of the effectiveness – and side effects – of Keytruda (a.k.a. pembrolizumab), an immunotherapy targeting recurrent, stage IV, non-small-cell lung cancer.
Joining the National Clinical Trial Network and participating in the advanced trials are important steps for Mount Sinai South Nassau, which “increasingly has become a teaching hospital … that is actively engaged in research on many fronts,” according to hospital President Adhi Sharma.
Shahriyour Andaz: Multiple trials, enhanced outcomes.
“This is another step forward to ensure that our patients have access to the latest NCI-designated clinical trials,” Sharma said in a statement.
The NCI designation brings a national body of experts to bear and ensures that patients’ welfare and individual rights are vigorously protected; it also requires that clinical trials be “reviewed efficiently, with the highest ethical and quality standards,” according to Mount Sinai South Nassau.
The randomized phase III trial will assess how combining radiation therapy with lymph-node dissection compares to radiation therapy alone in breast cancer patients previously treated by chemotherapy and surgery. The Keytruda study will gauge the immunotherapy’s ability to shrink tumors – with and without chemotherapy – while measuring its side effects.
Mount Sinai South Nassau is currently recruiting patients for both studies.
Shahriyour Andaz, Mount Sinai South Nassau’s director of clinical research, said the new trials add to an already busy schedule in the hospital’s Department of Clinical Research, where 15 different clinical studies – focusing on gastroenterology, neuro-oncology and other medical conditions, including a range of different cancers – are already underway, involving hundreds of patients.
“We are making certain that our patients’ have access to clinical trials and research for innovative therapies, medical treatment approaches and surgical approaches,” Andaz said Wednesday. “The findings from the trials and research are also culled by physicians and often times are incorporated in treatment plans to benefit and enhance the outcomes of our patients.”
