Research of optimal sequencing of biological therapies in metastatic colorectal cancer: results from the international registry, TRACC
The Treatment of Recurrent and Advanced Colorectal Cancer (TRACC) registry for patients with recurrent and advanced colorectal cancer has been collecting data for the past 10 years. More than 3000 patients have been enrolled in the registry, resulting in close to 100 abstracts and publications
BioGrid Australia has worked closely with the TRACC team over that time to develop, evolve and redesign the database which has been an essential element of the project’s success.
Data is collected prospectively at 30 cancer centres across Australia and Hong Kong, with a focus on the outcomes of varying types of surgical and systemic treatments. The dataset also records adverse events and disease progression. Developing an understanding of how treatments are evolving over time and how patients benefit from new approaches to treatment, such as biomarker-directed therapy, in real-world colorectal cancer (CRC) patients better informs clinicians in the selection of therapy.
One recent publication, led by Dr Matthew Burge, a medical oncologist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and lecturer at the University of Queensland, relied on the size and statistical strength of the TRACC database to consider treatment outcomes in advanced CRC.
“BioGrid has enabled us to create a large cross-hospital, international mCRC database,” he said.
I have used TRACC to ask specific questions regarding the optimal sequencing of biological therapies and whether molecular subtypes of cancers influence recurrence rates after resection. Without BioGrid, these data could not be collated and analysed. The size of TRACC allows us to consider questions that could not be explored with patient data from one or two (institutions). BioGrid gives access to sufficient patient data to give reliable answers.
“The number of patients in the database gives us statistical power to examine standard patterns of care and patient outcome.”
Led by Principal Investigator Professor Peter Gibbs, TRACC was initiated in 2009 due to the many potential benefits of collecting real world data. TRACC has received support from several sources, including Roche Australia, but now functions independently of any sponsor.
For more information about TRACC go to the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registy ID: ACTRN12618000404224.
To view the abstract of the publication discussed above, go to PubMed.
View the online case study