The London Clinic Advanced Therapies Centre

The London Clinic recently launched the Advanced Therapies Centre, a new facility which aims to provide innovative treatment choices for patients by supporting clinical trials and enabling access to novel therapies.

The Advanced Therapies Centre, which is part of a broader Clinical Research programme at The London Clinic, and one of the first clinical trials programme in the independent healthcare sector, will focus on Phase II and III clinical trials and medical device trials, offering patients access to the latest advances in treatments.

The Advanced Therapies Centre provides a number of benefits to both consultants and patients. It is housed in The London Clinic’s new £90 million cancer centre, which can provide the latest treatment, cutting edge technology and world leading expertise. The Named Patient Programme allows equal access for private patients to unlicensed medication and off-label treatment in a controlled environment. Patients involved in the clinical trials will have consistent care with 24 hour emergency cover to all consultants and a pharmacy that can formulate treatment as required.

Further benefits of the central coordination of the Advanced Therapies Centre include a rapid study set up time in 42 days R&D approval time, compared to 56-120 days in NHS Trusts, as well as rapid patient recruitment with access via consultants’ private practices, accurate estimation of numbers, and access to patients unlikely to have taken part in previous clinical trials.

Alistair Gifford-Moore, Clinical Trials Manager at The London Clinic Advanced Therapies Centre states “Clinical trials are vitally important to constantly improve the care of those with cancer, and the new Advanced Therapies Centre is an exciting step forward for clinical research at The London Clinic. We are now one of the first private institutions to fully support clinical trials programme and, whilst utilising the equipment and expertise we have, we are able to provide patients with access to novel therapies, the best possible care options, and new hope for the future.”

The first clinical trials being undertaken at the Advanced Therapies Centre focus on oncology, haematology and medical devices, and will include studies of immunotherapy agents in pancreatic and colorectal melanoma (and other tumour groups). Further proposed studies include a comparison of the superiority of stereotactic radiosurgery with CyberKnife for cancers that have metastasized. New studies also include a world first prosthesis/resurfacing knee implant medical device study called BioPoly.

The Advanced Therapies Centre consists of a multidisciplinary team of specialist pharmacists, research governance and quality assurance facilitators, a Macmillan Cancer Information Nurse Specialist and consultant advisors from the NHS, academia and the pharmaceutical industry. The Centre further cements The London Clinic’s commitment to clinical investigation and, as part of a wider clinical research programme, it also supports the charitable status by contributing to the scientific foundation of future clinical treatment and management of patients in the UK