OCTO Home
The Oncology Clinical Trials Office (OCTO) is concerned with the practical application of high-quality clinical research into innovative and effective cancer therapies and prevention strategies particularly in the field of gastrointestinal cancer. OCTO's key aims are to improve both survival rates and the quality of life of cancer patients by contributing to the evidence-base that will underpin cancer services now and in the future; and to bring about major and continuing improvements in the quality of practice in clinical research. These aims will be achieved in partnership with academic-led research communities, with industry and with patients and their carers. We aspire to put OCTO on a par with the best in the world, and to establish it as a national and international leader in its approach to the integration of research, treatment and care for cancer patients. OCTO is part of the Clinical Pharmacology Department of The University of Oxford.
Services offered by OCTO
- Clinical queries/safety review
- Randomisation Service*
- Data Entry*
- Database design and maintenance*
- QA*
- Site Monitoring*
- Trial Management*
- Drug supply monitoring and management
- Trial funding advice and application*
- Clinical research training*
- Regulatory and EC reporting
- Trial document design (including protocol writing)*
* Services available to external groups (contract work)
If you are interested in any of the services offered by OCTO please send us a completed Background Information Form.
Alternatively telephone 01865 617000 or email enquiries@octo-oxford.org.uk for a preliminary discussion.
OCTRU
The Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit (OCTRU) integrates the work of OCTO and CSM (Centre for Statistics in Medicine). For further information click here.
BREAKING NEWS - DATACAP TRIAL OPENS
We are delighted to announce that the DATACAP trial has opened to recruitment at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford. The plan is to recruit 32 patients at this single site. We would like to thank all involved for their efforts so far.
Rachel Midgley and David Kerr
Click here for further details about the trial.
BREAKING NEWS - FOXFIRE TRIAL OPENS
We are delighted to announce that FOXFIRE is now open to recruitment! Congratulations to Royal Surrey County Hospital for being the first site activated! We hope to open more sites very soon and would like to thank all involved for their efforts so far.
Rachel Midgley and David Kerr
Click here for further details about the trial.
BREAKING NEWS - QUASAR 2
STOP PRESS! QUASAR 2 LAST PUSH. TOTAL 1900 PATIENTS REQUIRED. ANTICIPATED CLOSE DATE END MARCH 2010!
Firstly a HUGE thank you for recruiting to this study over the last few years - it has been a long journey but one that we have enjoyed and we hope you have too! I think we all concede a certain disappointment in the results of C-08 presented at ASCO this year. However the results were tantalising and C-08 was different to QUASAR2: We remain the only study in the world to be testing Avastin in combination with single agent chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting of colorectal cancer. So QUASAR2 trial is of resounding importance in determining the role of anti-angiogenic therapy in this setting.
Because of the slightly slower, and therefore more prolonged, recruitment of QUASAR2 (and therefore increased chance of an event) fewer patients will be required to achieve the primary and secondary endpoints. Our statisticians have confirmed that we require a total of 1900 all-stage patients to achieve the primary endpoint of 3-year disease-free survival benefit in the overall population, with 90% power.
These numbers (about 200 in total to go) are expected to be achieved by the end of March 2010 if we recruit 50 patients per month. Can you help us do this? We think you can. Let's do it even faster. Let's get 1 patient per site per month and have it completed for Christmas!
Rachel Midgley and David Kerr
Further to the recent press release from Roche (see attached) re: the preliminary results of the C-08 trial of Avastin in the adjuvant treatment of colon cancer, we would like to confirm to our research community that we do not feel these results impact upon the continuing validity of or rationale for the QUASAR2 study. Indeed we believe that this result re-emphasises the importance of the QUASAR2 study. At the present time the results from the C-08 trial have not been released and are due to be presented at the ASCO meeting next month. However the trial tested the benefit of Avastin when added to a 5FU/oxaliplatin regime, which is significantly different to the question being asked in the QUASAR2 study, where we are assessing the effect of Avastin when added to single agent capecitabine. We are pleased to report that recruitment into QUASAR2 is going very well with today’s recruitment figure standing at 1459 of a required total of 2240. We thank you wholeheartedly for your continuing support.
Rachel Midgley and David Kerr
BREAKING NEWS - SCOT
The number of CT scans mandated by the protocol is currently under review.
Click here for further details about the trial.
