March 29, 2020
As the AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Annual Meeting is fast approaching, many industry and academic scientists are busy preparing talks and posters for what they hope will be the next new wave in cancer therapy or the next “new and improved” preclinical model. However, while these may be long shots, it’s the scientific drive for improvement that keeps us moving forward. As, patients and clinicians, we are desperately looking for new therapies, even if the odds are against us. The desire to fulfill that unmet medical need is exactly how the one new drug is discovered. New oncology drugs only have a 5% success rate once making it from Phase I clinical trials to FDA approval. This is the lowest success rate among the 21 major disease indications.1