Building a Broad Clinical Trial Portfolio, Closer to Home

For people living with cancer, finding the right clinical trial at the right time can open the door to new treatment possibilities. Yet these studies are often concentrated at large academic centers far from home. The Taylor Cancer Research Center (TCRC) is working to change that by bringing precision-therapy research and personalized trial opportunities to patients in Northwest Ohio and beyond.

Founded by the Taylor Family Research Foundation and located within the Toledo Clinic Cancer Center (TCCC), TCRC conducts FDA-authorized clinical trials of investigational therapies. Precision therapy begins with the genetic and molecular features of a person’s cancer. Researchers look for abnormal signals that help a tumor grow, then study treatments designed to target those signals more specifically.

·       34 precision-therapy trials opened or in development since TCRC initiated its first trial on July 8, 2024

·       15 Phase 1, four Phase 2, and 15 Phase 3 studies

·       86 patients enrolled in therapeutic trials across a wide range of cancer types

TCRC’s portfolio includes studies for non-small cell lung, pancreatic, colorectal, melanoma, cholangiocarcinoma, lymphoma and myeloma, gynecologic, breast, prostate, head and neck, small-cell, skin, and liver cancers. The center also has 12 observational biomarker trials, with 164 patients enrolled, to study signals associated with treatment sensitivity or resistance.

Patient accrual snapshot, July 7, 2024–August 16, 2026: 86 participants in therapeutic trials and 164 participants in observational biomarker trials.

Opening Studies Faster

TCRC has led national patient enrollment in eight precision-therapy trials and recorded the first global enrollment in another. The center also reports markedly reducing the time needed to open new studies. While oncology trial activation can take months, TCRC reports activating a trial in 16 days with support from an AI-enabled platform—and activating a Phase 3 study in 17 days.

That speed matters because a trial cannot help patients until it is open and enrolling. At TCCC, oncologists also use molecular biomarker information to monitor how cancer is responding and to help identify when an investigational precision therapy may be worth considering. Together, faster trial activation and biomarker-guided care can make research a more timely, practical part of the treatment conversation.

Interested in learning more? Patients and physicians can call 567-402-4500 to ask about current clinical trial opportunities at TCRC.