I am pleased to share with you the 2020 Cancer Trials Australia Annual Report, released at our recent Annual General Meeting.

Please click here to access the report

As the report describes, despite the obstacles that the global pandemic presented, CTA continued to flourish, and our staff are to be commended for their professionalism throughout a challenging year.

The 2020 calendar year saw growth in both CTA service provision and membership, welcoming Auckland City Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital, Launceston General Hospital, and more recently, Cancer Research South Australia.

Building on the back of growth in the previous three years, almost all CTA service metrics improved further in 2020.  While the number of oncology submissions matched the previous year, amendments grew by 45%, and CTA supported clinical trials open to accrual grew by 28%.  The CTA Finance team distributed almost $30M to our Members, up more than 10% on the previous year.

In October 2020 we celebrated a major milestone, with the recruitment of the 10,000th patient to CTA supported studies.  We are proud to showcase this outstanding achievement for both CTA and our Members within the report.

Our key programs in 2020 included (i) strategic membership expansion, (ii) renewal of all expiring service agreements, (iii) expansion of customised reporting to support Member decision making, (iv) implementation of SiteDocs Portal across 17 Victorian hospitals, (v) further expansion into non-oncology trial support, and (vi) nurturing additional Phase 1 capability with our Victorian Cancer Agency supported Phase 1 Fellowship program.

Cancer Trials Australia remains well positioned to continue to support growing clinical trial activity across our expanding membership, helping to ensure Australia remains a destination of choice for clinical trials and securing earlier access to novel therapies for Australian patients.

I thank all CTA staff, as well as our network Member personnel, for all the hard work they undertake that is essential to enable the CTA network to prosper.

Kurt Lackovic
CEO