Rescue the biological samples from failed trials for biomarker research
Trials that fail still collected thousands of blood and tissue samples. Instead of being destroyed, they should be pooled so scientists can learn who might have benefited.
Negative trials are often the most informative for biomarker discovery: a subgroup may have responded. Samples from discontinued programmes are usually destroyed or locked. A biobank with pre-negotiated transfer terms, linked de-identified clinical data, and an access committee would allow prospective-retrospective biomarker studies and could resurrect drugs for a biomarker-defined population.
- Failures are hidden · Negative trials, failed drugs and abandoned programmes are rarely published, so the same mistakes are repeated.
- Biomarkers are not validated or standardised · Tests that decide who gets a drug are often not validated prospectively and are measured differently in every lab.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaPublic post-mortem reports when a cancer drug programme is stopped
Shares A commons of shelved cancer drugs with their full data, open to new hypotheses, Failures are hidden.
- IdeaMatch therapy to the type of scar-forming cell in the tumour
Shares Failures are hidden, Biomarkers are not validated or standardised.
- TermCompanion diagnostic
Shares A formal regulatory route for validating a biomarker on archived trial samples, Biomarkers are not validated or standardised.
- Key paperTROPION-Breast01: datopotamab deruxtecan versus chemotherapy in pretreated hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, and why a PFS win did not translate to survival
Shares Failures are hidden, Biomarkers are not validated or standardised.