Fight Colorectal Cancer Launches 'Clinical Trial Finder' Mobile App in Partnership with Flatiron Health

Fight Colorectal Cancer (Fight CRC) has collaborated with Flatiron Health to develop a smartphone application for its Late-Stage, MSS-CRC Clinical Trial Finder. The first-of-its-kind app — now available for both iOS and Android — enables patients with late-stage Microsatellite Stable (MSS) colorectal cancer to research relevant clinical trials via their phone.

The Fight CRC Clinical Trial Finder was the work of stage 4 colorectal cancer survivor, Dr. Tom Marsilje, who originally curated MSS-CRC clinical trials into a list using just a spreadsheet. As word of the resource began to spread, Dr. Marsilje expanded the tool to make it easier for patients to search for trials. In 2017, he partnered with Fight CRC and Flatiron Health to further modernize his efforts and reach more patients.

In May 2017, Flatiron Health built a web-based version of the Clinical Trial Finder during one of the company’s quarterly hackathons, a two-day event that provides its employees an opportunity to take on a grassroots side project outside of their daily work. Since May 2017, nearly 14,000 people have utilized the tool, equating to over 24,000 unique searches. The mobile app version of Clinical Trial Finder represents an ongoing effort by the Flatiron team.

“I’m so excited to see this app come to fruition. Empowering patients and improving access to clinical trials will help us continue to move the needle for patients with colorectal cancer,” said Neal Meropol, Vice President of Research Oncology at Flatiron Health and a member of Fight CRC’s Medical Advisory Board.

The trial finder serves patients and their caregivers with a curated list of potential clinical trials for them to subsequently discuss with their medical team. The tool is updated daily with the latest details on new and existing trials and monitored by Maia (Cee Cee) Walker, a volunteer, and clinical trials expert, along with the support of trained Fight CRC research advocates.

“The launch of this app for the Fight CRC Clinical Trial Finder is what Tom always envisioned,” said Fight CRC president Anjee Davis. “We are so grateful to our partners at Flatiron for their tremendous work in bringing this dream of Tom’s to fruition. It will be a game changer for patients and caregivers--delivering the latest in clinical trials to their phones and giving them a sense of control during a time when they so often feel powerless.”

The filtered curation is generated from all potential MSS-CRC patient-enrolling trials and is based on parameters that are most important from the viewpoint of stage IV, MSS-CRC patients. The content is sourced from a publicly available repository of all trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, that is maintained by the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI).

To learn more about the Clinical Trial Finder visit http://trialfinder.fightcrc.org/.