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SITC 2021 | The rise of virtual clinical trials

Kannan Natarajan, PhD, Pfizer, Brooklyn, NY, comments on the rapid growth of virtual clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic and outlines some of the lessons learnt during this period. Restricted access to clinical sites during the pandemic significantly disrupted cancer care and clinical trials, resulting in an increase in the number of decentralized clinical trials, which aim to minimize the number of visits to clinical sites by developing new methods and technologies to monitor patients and perform clinical assessments. Dr Natarajan explains that these clinical trials will help increase patient participation, because one of the main issues of in-person clinical trials is patients being required to travel to clinical sites. Dr Natarajan also comments on the challenge of COVID-19 vaccination in immunocompromised cancer patients. This interview took place during the 36th Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.