As described, the new guidelines are in keeping with FDA's Critical Path Initiative designed to accelerate the approval of innovative diagnostics, drugs and other therapeutics to prevent and treat diseases, including cancer.
"All of the nation's cancer research community has been talking excitedly about 'translational' cancer research, the process by which new discoveries about cancer are developed for human use in cancer detection, diagnosis, prevention and treatment," said William G. Nelson V, M.D., Ph.D., AACR's chairperson of the Science Policy and Legislative Affairs Committee and professor of Oncology, Urology, Pharmacology, Medicine, Pathology and Radiation Oncology at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University.
"The new FDA guidelines address critical issues in translational research, providing defined pathways for introducing the latest innovations for cancer into human clinical trials, and attempts to modernize standards across clinical sites," he added.
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research is a professional society of more than 24,000 laboratory, translational, and clinical scientists engaged in all areas of cancer research in the United States and in more than 60 other countries. AACR's mission is to accelerate the prevention and cure of cancer through research, education, communication, and advocacy. Its principal activities include the publication of five major peer-reviewed scientific journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. AACR's Annual Meetings attract nearly 16,000 participants who share new and significant discoveries in the cancer field. Specialty meetings, held throughout the year, focus on the latest developments in all areas of cancer research.