Myeloma Patients Europe (MPE) has launched the English version of the Myeloma and AL Amyloidosis European Clinical Trial Navigator to facilitate the search of clinical trials for patients, carers and advocates in Europe.
The online search tool will provide information on clinical trials for myeloma, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), smouldering multiple myeloma (SMM) and AL amyloidosis.
Affecting approximately 50,000 people in Europe every year, myeloma is a rare and incurable cancer of the bone marrow, accounting for 1% of all cancers.
Treatment for this condition can involve a stem cell transplant and combinations of three to four drugs at a time, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and steroids.
AL amyloidosis is the most prevalent form of amyloidosis, a group of haematological diseases that occur when soluble proteins bind together and deposit amyloid fibrils in various organs and tissues.
In November 2023, MPE launched a report focused on the impact of the condition on quality of life, which revealed that 47% of patients waited five months or more to get a diagnosis and 22% waited over a year.
The MPE recommended that patient advocates and patient organisations should develop or link people to publicly available resources about clinical trials.
The navigator tool provides an easy way for individuals to search for clinical trials by selecting only the relevant condition.
Using an advanced search, the tool can select characteristics of the clinical trial, such as the study phase, recruitment status, type of medicine or results availability, as well as provide the option to locate selected clinical trials on a map for the individual to see which country and which centre the clinical trials are taking place in.
Currently only available in English, there are plans to make the navigator tool available in many more European languages in the future.
Lise-lott Eriksson, president of MPE, commented: “The navigator…serves as a vital tool for patient organisations and advocates, driving forward patient-centric healthcare and cross-border collaboration in drug development and clinical research.”
