Cancer trials should not be seen as a last resort for people with the disease. They should instead be mainstreamed as a treatment option for those affected, Cancer Trials Ireland has insisted.

Cancer Trials Ireland is responsible for coordinating cancer trials in this country. Since its establishment in 1996, over 15,000 people have participated in more than 350 cancer trials.

Last year alone, 14 hospital-based research units were working on over 150 trials involving more than 6,300 patients.

In a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare, the organisation pointed out that trials benefit both the patient and the wider economy.

Patients get access to treatments that would not normally be available to them and for every €1 the Exchequer invests in cancer trials, it saves more than €2 in cancer treatment costs.

The organisation said that in order to exploit these opportunities, cancer trials should be mainstreamed in two ways:

-They should be integrated into the National Cancer Control Programme at a national policy level and promoted to all clinicians as a mainstream cancer treatment option. Involvement in a trial should not be seen as a last resort and patients should not have to rely on their doctors' awareness of available trials. The current patient participation rate in cancer trials is 3%, however a target of 5% should be set
-More cancer trials should be opened in Ireland by pharmaceutical companies and international collaborative research groups.

It pointed out that Denmark has a similar-sized population to Ireland and it is seen as a world leader in both of the above areas.

Commenting on the submission, Cancer Trials Ireland CEO Eibhlin Mulroe, said that ‘both strands of this recommended policy are interdependent'. If cancer trials are treated as an integral part of the treatments available to people, it is likely that more patients will be available to participate.

"It will then be possible to open more trials and provide more patients with access to new promising treatments, not available through any other avenue.

"It will also be possible to develop further our expertise in this area and attract more investment from pharmaceutical companies and international collaborative groups. If we can attract this investment we can open more trials, and the cycle repeats itself," she explained.

The full submission to the Oireachtas Committee can be read here