Concluding Remarks

Abstract

It is my privilege in the name of the Council of the EORTC to conclude this meeting and I am quite sure that you do not expect me to try to summarize the results of this marathon of papers presented during the last 3 days. I think both the organizers and the audience are to be congratulated for embarking upon such an ambitious, high pressure meeting, but clearly the gamble has paid off. We had a great deal of information and the vigor of discussions amply demonstrated the recognition of the problems we are facing in the therapy of cancer. Many of you who are working in clinical trials may not appreciate that what is accepted today as the natural and normal way of studying the problem has not been accepted as such always. Equally, it may not be appreciated by all that we are only beginning the study of clinical trials. With increasing sophistication of treatment methods and the increasing number and complexity of the monitoring methods available, I can imagine that future clinical trials will be far more difficult to organize and to run than those that we are running today. All the more reason why we should recognize the problem and criteria of the framework that will be essential for carrying out the new developing trials. I cannot overemphasize enough the degree of sophistication that I can foresee emerging. I am quite sure that there will be very few cancer centers, if any, that will have all the techniques available for all kinds of trials and monitoring at anyone time, and also enough patient material. Consequently, in the future we willdepend more and more on the cooperative clinical trials. This, of course, is the main task of the EORTC: the organization and facilitation of cooperative clinical work. In these trials appropriate documentation, data retrieval, and analysis will, of course, be sine qua non. The progress is satisfactory but I warn you that the work is going to be more arduous requiring greater effort and manpower investment.