NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Massive Bio, a leader in AI-powered cancer clinical trial enrollment, today announced that the company exceeded its goal to onboard 100,000 cancer patients in its platform by the end of 2022 – nine months sooner than expected. The Massive Bio platform matches cancer patients with relevant clinical trials using artificial intelligence (AI), empowering patients to find treatment options faster – while enabling life sciences companies to conduct broader, more inclusive population-based recruitment rather than traditional site-specific recruitment.
Currently, there are more than 14,000 active cancer clinical trials globally, with more than 18 million new patients being diagnosed with cancer every year. And yet, a study from the National Cancer Database found that less than 0.1% of cancer patients were enrolled in a clinical trial, based on an analysis of more than 12 million patients who enrolled in clinical trials as their initial course of treatment for 46 cancers from 2004 to 2015.
One of the major barriers to trial participation is the tedious job of manually reviewing patient records and reading trial protocols – a process that contributes to low trial enrollment because it is time-consuming, prone to error, and requires a significant commitment of human resources in an industry that struggles with staffing shortages, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Massive Bio’s innovative SYNERGY-AI platform algorithms extract information automatically and accurately from patients’ electronic health records (EHR), including biomarker and other test results, previous treatments, and outcomes—then identifies clinical trial matches based on how each patient’s cancer and treatment history meets trial protocols and availability. The results are then audited and managed by a Massive Bio certified oncology case manager for accuracy. This use of AI to make trial matching faster and more precise gives patients greater confidence that they are getting into the right trial, while enabling providers to spend more time on patient care.
Massive Bio CEO and Co-Founder Selin Kurnaz set the 100,000-patient goal in December 2021. Since then, the company has continued working to transform how cancer patients discover, engage, and enroll in clinical trials. Those efforts have led to the onboarding of more than 102,000 patients into Massive Bio’s platform, with an additional 6,000 patients being added every month. Based on this year’s progress, Kurnaz has set a new goal to have 250,000 onboarded patients by the middle of 2024.
“We are leading this disruption in cancer clinical trials, and this is ‘game-changing’ because we believe it’s the right thing to do for millions of patients who need more treatment options,” says Kurnaz. “We are approaching this challenge differently than anyone else by taking a technology-led, engineering-focused approach – using software to match people with the best trials. We now provide recruitment and enrollment in 12 countries, including large cancer centers as well as community-based clinics, providing patients with access to clinical trials regardless of location or financial circumstances. Before we created Massive Bio, most patients only had an opportunity to enroll in a clinical trial if their doctor referred them. Now every cancer patient can learn about clinical trials and even start the enrollment process in their living room. What’s more, we’re helping the industry cope with bottlenecks and other operational constraints that create inefficiencies in the drug development pipeline. We are re-creating the oncology patient enrollment industry.”
Patients diagnosed with cancer can visit ClinicalTrials.gov to join the SYNERGY-AI Registry, an international registry for cancer patients to evaluate the feasibility of Massive Bio’s Artificial Intelligence-based precision oncology clinical trial matching tool. Patients who voluntarily enroll will receive treatment recommendations and can consult with their oncologist on next steps.
“Our goal is to give hope to each patient and to help them find their trial,” said Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, MD, co-founder and chief medical officer of Massive Bio. “The current clinical trial enrollment process is cumbersome and outdated – for both patients and sponsors alike. This program will not only improve the options available for cancer patients, but also enable faster drug development, more efficient patient enrollment, and increased diversity and inclusion in clinical trials.”
