Spain’s Cooperative Oncologists Drive Clinical Trial Leadership Amid Funding Challenges

Spain is a European leader in clinical trials and is in the top three worldwide, behind only China and the United States, powers that far surpass Spain in investment, centers, and number of inhabitants. The data speak for themselves: in 2024 alone, the Spanish Medicines Agency authorized 930 trials, surpassing powers such as Germany and France.

39% of these clinical trials (350) investigate oncological therapies, an area of ​​​​knowledge in which Spain once again leads and which is key due to the growing incidence of this disease and the mortality it generates.

Cancer is the leading cause of death among men and the second among women in Spain

What these data don’t tell you is what lies behind some of that research: oncologists who, in addition to seeing patients, research and network with others like them through the 19 cooperative cancer research groups that exist in Spain.

Oncologists, without profit motive and without time freed up from their healthcare work, which ends up being stolen from their personal lives, work around the clock to ensure that research that seeks to answer questions that are not of much interest to the industry sees the light of day and that their results reach the patients they see in their offices every day as quickly as possible.

“Our network of cooperative groups supports the research we carry out, and is one of the values ​​that probably keeps us in this leadership position,” said Dr. César Rodríguez, president of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), last Friday in Salamanca, during the XVII Journalists’ Seminar on Healing and Caring for Oncology, organized by the scientific society together with the biopharmaceutical company MSD.

These cooperative groups include oncologist researchers from centers across Spain

The GEICAM group alone, dedicated to breast cancer, which has accumulated 67,000 patients enrolled in trials since its creation, has more than 200 centers spread across all the autonomous communities. This capillarity allows cooperative groups to not depend on specific centers to conduct a clinical trial and always have opportunities to recruit patients, a characteristic that “sets us apart from other countries,” Rodríguez noted, and that benefits patients, who can access more trials.

More than 43,600 patients in Spain have participated or continue to participate in Phase III cooperative group clinical trials for all types of cancer, according to the 2025 Oncology Research Dossier on these groups published by SEOM.

These high numbers of patients and research are positive because “the impact of trials is very significant in Phase III; they are the ones that change treatment standards,” explained the president, but research by these groups still needs to improve its numbers in early-phase studies; only 3.8% are Phase I and 4% are Phase I-II. “The number is relatively low and it’s another challenge: we have to be the ones who start the research from the beginning,” he admitted.

These groups, in addition to promoting their own research, also collaborate with industry on other trials, providing them with a broad and consolidated network of centers and clinical researchers in a ” high-quality” healthcare system, an attraction for companies when conducting their trials. Furthermore, Spain was a pioneer in implementing the new Clinical Trials Regulations “very expeditiously,” which has allowed waiting times until clinical trials are authorized to be lower than the European average: 206 days compared to 277.

These factors have kept Spain, for now, away from the trend that has led other European countries to lose clinical trials to Asian countries. Dr. Rodríguez warned of the ” essential” nature of continuing to hold back trials in Europe so that their results “can be applied in our environment.” And in this regard, ” Spain is the one leading the way . “

Difficulties of cooperative groups to do clinical trials

The annual reports consolidating Spain’s success in clinical trials show another, less widely reported and unfavorable fact: only 17% of new clinical trials in 2024 were promoted by academic research, that is, not subject to commercial interests. The lack of public funding for basic and translational academic research has been denounced on numerous occasions by the scientific community.

Added to this are bureaucratic problems and problems with access to grants. Cooperative groups do not promote all the studies they would like because, among other difficulties, “they have problems every day accessing independent academic research projects,” lamented the president of SEOM.

Only 17% of new clinical trials in 2024 were promoted by academic research

The scientific community tries to “act as an umbrella” for these groups and their ideas in order to conduct research “with transparency, independence, and scientific value.” However, currently, it is more difficult to access public funding calls as a group than as a specific center or individual researcher. “Some calls even prevent groups from entering,” stated Dr. Rodríguez. Without funding, many academic research projects are shelved.

Dr. Eva Carrasco, scientific and general director of Geicam, knows this well. She noted that every day they have to “strive a careful balance between requirements and resources” to be able to carry out a trial, something that “is very complicated.”

During her presentation, she made it clear that more studies are needed on ideas that arise from researchers, on needs they see in their day-to-day practice, and that will not be supported by the industry. “Face-to-face studies of one drug from one company versus another, on optimal treatment duration or de-escalation, or on different combinations,” she listed. To achieve this, he advocated for the collaboration of society, including “non-pharmaceutical companies, individual donors, and patient associations,” benefactors whom they already have in some cases , “but it is not enough.”

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(Featured image by Louis Reed via Unsplash)

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First published in iSanidad. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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