ECLIM-SEHOP: how to develop a platform to conduct academic trials for childhood cancer

TL;DR

ECLIM-SEHOP is a platform that helps Spain participate in international childhood cancer trials, improving access and centralizing resources.

Contribution

The platform's infrastructure and metrics for supporting clinical trials in pediatric oncology are described.

Findings

ECLIM-SEHOP supported 47 studies, recruiting 5250 patients in total.

The mean time from regulatory submission to first patient recruitment was 12.2 months.

The platform has helped reduce survival rate disparities between Spain and other European countries.

Abstract

ECLIM-SEHOP platform was created in 2017. Its main objective is to establish the infrastructure to allow Spanish participation into international academic collaborative clinical trials, observational studies, and registries in pediatric oncology. The aim of this manuscript is to describe the activity conducted by ECLIM-SEHOP since its creation.

The platform’s database was queried to provide an overview of the studies integrally and partially supported by the organization. Data on trial recruitment and set-up/conduct metrics since its creation until November 2023 were extracted.

ECLIM-SEHOP has supported 47 studies: 29 clinical trials and 18 observational studies/registries that have recruited a total of 5250 patients. Integral support has been given to 25 studies: 16 trials recruiting 584 patients and nine observational studies/registries recruiting 278 patients. The trials include front-line studies for leukemia, lymphoma, brain and solid extracranial tumors, and other key transversal topics such as off-label use of targeted therapies and survivorship. The mean time from regulatory authority submission to first patient recruited was 12.2 months and from first international site open to first Spanish site open was 31.3 months.

ECLIM-SEHOP platform has remarkably improved the availability and accessibility of international academic clinical trials and has facilitated the centralization of resources in childhood cancer treatment. Despite the progressive improvement on clinical trial set-up metrics, timings should still be improved. The program has contributed to leveling survival rates in Spain with those of other European countries that presented major differences in the past.

Figures