Clinical research

The IUCT Oncopole and Purpan IUCT, Rangueil-Larrey IUCT and CRCT carry out an average of 400 clinical trials per year.
Many molecules are left out in the late stages of their development. This therefore requires the development of approaches able to detect, at the earliest stages (preclinical and clinical), the inefficacy or even toxicity of molecules developed for clinical use.
The efficacy of treatments varies from one type of cancer to another and, for the same type of cancer, from one patient to another, without us being able properly to foresee this.

For optimum efficacy and minimal toxicity, targeted drugs need to be offered to patients   in whom the presence or absence of biomarkers in the blood can predict the therapeutic response. Therapeutic approaches have thus become increasingly "personalized".

The objectives of clinical research should be:

• improvement of patient survival;
• optimization of treatment;
• de-escalation of therapy to reduce side effects and delayed effects.

At the IUCT Oncopole, 13% of patients are asked if they want to be included in a clinical research protocol. The medium-term goal is to reach 15%.
All the early phase trials are carried out at the IUCT Oncopole regardless of the type of cancer and the place where the patient is treated (IUCT   Oncopole, Rangueil-Larrey IUCT, Purpan IUCT, general hospitals in the Midi-Pyrénées region, private clinics).

The phase III and IV  clinical trials performed at the IUCT-Oncopole concern diseases treated at the institute (hematology, senology, gynecology, melanomas, etc.). For other specialties such as liver, gastric and gastrointestinal cancers, the  trials are conducted at Purpan IUCT and Rangueil IUCT.

Platforms and expertise 

1) an INCa-designated early-phase clinical trial center (CLIPP),  one of the 16 French centers specialized in early phase clinical trials of innovative therapies in oncology.

2) an ISO 9001:2015 certified clinical research administrative center

3) a pharmacology unit which in addition to basic research, provides pharmacological monitoring for the clinical trials of all new medicinal products.

4) a preclinical phase platform. On a single site, (on the 1st floor of the CRCT building, the Regional Center for Functional Exploration and Experimental Resources (CREFRE) will group together all the animal husbandry, transgenesis and functional investigation services : microsurgery, phenotyping, non-invasive explorations, histopathology), it will be possible to test a molecule or a therapeutic approach from the preclinical phases to the later phases.