Clinical cancer research remains too expensive and too burdensome, even amid a proliferation of digital tools designed to improve it, according to Ines Vaz-Luis, MD, PhD, who spoke at the 2025 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Berlin, Germany.
Speaking during her session titled, “Clinical Trials in the Age of AI,” Dr. Vaz-Luis called the current research system “remarkable, but far from optimal,” citing five major flaws: cost, slow pace, administrative overload, inequity, and limited reach.
Dr. Vaz-Luis is a medical oncologist and researcher at Gustave Roussy who specializes in cancer survivorship, according to her biography posted on the Gustave Roussy website.
“Success is when we have a phase 3 global trial that recruits 8,000 patients and lasts four years. I would argue that we can do better,” she said. “We have around 200 hours of work per patient, per study. One-third of this work is non-clinical tasks.”
Dr. Vaz-Luis noted that underrepresented groups still account for only about 10% of clinical trial participants in the United States, despite making up a third of the population
“One-third of the U.S. census population in 2010 was African American and Hispanic,” she said. “Ten percent of the clinical-trial population were from this race in 1990.”
Transforming clinical trials with digital tools
She argued that digital technologies can help correct those inefficiencies.
“Technology is everywhere,” she said. “Every domain in society is using technological devices. Technology is in health. So how can we transform cancer research using technology?”
She proposed four immediate priorities: simplifying trial procedures, expediting data collection, expanding global access, and fostering patient empowerment.
Dr. Vaz-Luis cautioned that adopting digital tools will take time and coordination among institutions.
“We have a lot of challenges ahead: regulatory compliance, data security and privacy, standardization, technological barriers, operational complexity,” she said.
Regardless of the challenges, the digital tools exist to transform clinical oncology care.
“Clinical research today is not optimal,” Dr. Vaz-Luis said in closing. “But digital technologies can help us. The time is now to unlock the potential of digital-enabled research in oncology.”
