Clinical trials the ‘backbone’ of healthcare research

Life-saving treatments for several devastating diseases such as cancer and diabetes may never have been developed without the help of clinical trials – and a James Cook University researcher is aiming to highlight just how important trials are at a local level.

A new survey by JCU Exercise Physiologist Jenna Graffini will ask Townsville locals what their attitudes are towards clinical trials, what they understand about them, and gauge their willingness to take part.

“What I will be doing is trying to understand what those in the community and clinicians think about clinical trials and then see if we can match those priorities with the resources available within our non-metropolitan hospital,” she said.

“At the moment, about 90 per cent of clinical trials are conducted in major cities and what that means is people living in rural, regional and remote areas will have reduced access to clinical trials.

“Clinical trials potentially offer life-saving treatments. It’s a big equity issue and what my project is really looking at is how we can close that gap in clinical trial access.

“For example, if you have someone who has cancer and is on their last line of treatment and the only thing available is a clinical trial in Melbourne, some people just can’t afford to access that because they have to leave their families and jobs for a certain period of time.”

A lack of resources at regional hospitals remains one of the biggest challenges to bringing more clinical trials to the regions.

The survey findings will inform Ms Graffini’s wider PhD that explores clinical trial capability, capacity, community priorities and their perceived importance in hospitals across northern Australia.

“There’s also that attraction and retention factor for our clinicians. If we can make sure they are offered the opportunity to be involved in research here, that is satisfying for them in terms of their career,” she said.

Ms Graffini said she personally witnessed the life-saving role clinical trials could play after a man involved in a local clinical drug trial she was involved in was found to have an aneurysm on the verge of rupture.

“We had a gentleman approach our group who knew he had an aneurysm but it hadn't been followed up for many years. During the screening process, we scanned him and found that his aneurysm was extremely large and required surgery to prevent the likelihood of it rupturing,” she said.

“The surgery meant he was no longer able to take part in the study, but he avoided a potentially life ending event if it had not been found during the screening process.”

Ms Graffini said it was not unusual in her former research group to find participants that had unmanaged or undiagnosed diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, hypertension or high cholesterol.

“Sometimes these incidental findings mean that they are not eligible to take part, but that is the whole point of the screening process, to ensure that participants are safe and eligible” she said.

“And the patients benefit by having these conditions picked up so they can be managed appropriately.”

Distinguished Professor Jonathan Golledge, who heads the Queensland Research Centre for Peripheral Vascular Disease based at JCU, said clinical trials were critical to advancing health professionals’ understanding of diseases and how to treat them.

“Clinical trials offer an avenue to access the latest therapies for a larger range of important diseases,” he said.

“Often, participation of regional and remote communities in such trials is neglected and so understanding how studies can be better designed to meet the requirements of this population is very important.”

Community-based health consumer and PhD Research Stakeholder Advisory Committee member Suzanne Hill said distance and time were major impediments to regional Australians being able to access clinical trials.

“My dad took part in an asthma clinical trial in a large city. He had an appointment every six weeks and was well cared for by the research team. But to expect someone in Townsville to drive for two days or fly to attend a clinical trial appointment in Brisbane every six weeks is a big ask and almost impossible for most people to afford,” she said.

“While Townsville can’t run every trial, we do need more clinical trials that mean something to us and allow us to participate. It would make sense to have more trials targeting the conditions that are problematic here such as skin cancer and tropical diseases.”

Exercise Physiologist Brian Heilbronn, who is currently running the Veterans’ Individualised Physical Education, Rehabilitation, Recovery and Reintegration (VIPER3) program at JCU, said northern Queensland’s large Defence and veteran community benefitted enormously from research conducted locally.

“As a garrison city that is home to the largest military base in Australia, in terms of service personnel numbers, Townsville and the surrounding area has a large veteran population and therefore a large pool of participants to recruit from,” he said.

“Given the recent findings of the Royal Commission on Veteran Suicide, Townsville is the ideal location to run clinical trials on research that will have a positive outcome for veterans’ physical and mental health.

“Trials of this manner in Townsville not only actively help our veterans improve their health, but also the local community by getting our veterans reintegrated into the community and providing resources for other health practitioners working in the veteran space.”

To complete the survey, click here or email jenna.graffini@jcu.edu.au.

*Pictured above:  (L-R) Community-based health consumer and PhD Research Stakeholder Advisory Committee member Suzanne Hill with JCU Exercise Physiologist Jenna Graffini.