Onkológia 5/2018
Clinical and translational research in oncology in Slovakia
At present, they are de facto the only significant source of income for health insurance providers. There is no economic incentive for hospital management to support research and development activities on their soil. Clinical research (clinical trials) is a direct positive for the patient, indirect to society, with the potential to improve the availability of innovative medicines for patients as well as to save the costs of health insurance companies and facilities. Extensively restricted to commercial research (pharmaceutical studies sponsored by pharmacies). Academic research limited to retrospective studies, search for biomarkers, but we have a limited number of academic clinical trials with new drug testing, as these are costly, staff and logistically challenging. On the other hand, these too give the presumption of a significant economic effect to the future. The solution of the situation can be the centralization of research support, the networking of research within the oncology centers connected with the medical faculties, the interconnection of laboratory and clinical research as well as the centralization of the coordination of oncological research in Slovakia through the National Oncological Institute. Other options include specification of research priorities with thematically presented grant challenges, the creation of a national registry of studies as well as all-Slovak cooperation in order to carry out their own academic studies, where participation in them is a prerequisite for the workplace to belong to oncology centers. Direct support for infrastructure building within academic oncology departments such as biobanking, translation research units, and clinical trial departments.
Keywords: clinical research, translational research, oncology
