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As cancer treatments improve, more patients are surviving-but these survivors frequently enough face long-term health challenges. Specifically, young adults diagnosed with cancers like lymphomas and stomach cancers, Rathmell explained, face unique challenges regarding fertility, psychological distress, and workplace management. Ohio State launched the Bridge Program in response, focusing on building research innovation and specialized care delivery for this demographic. By utilizing the dyad model, the program ensures that these young patients receive highly coordinated treatment plans and survivorship support.
The Path to Implementation
As oncology moves toward more personalized medicine, the need for coordinated, data-driven care becomes even more urgent. Transforming these concepts into standard practice requires policy reform, not just new clinical workflows. Rathmell called for a move toward multistate or national medical licensure for telehealth to facilitate nationwide enrollment in remote trials. Health care systems also must be able to navigate the financial and legal complexities of managing patient complications at distant sites, and this can be accomplished by developing standardized ways to manage complications that occur at distant sites and securing “new financial support strategies” to sustain these high-tech, high-touch models.
Without a national framework, enrolling a patient in a trial across state lines remains a complex legal challenge. Ultimately, the goal is to make “clinical research part of the standard of care landscape.” By leveraging the dyad model and virtual trial technology, the oncology community can meet science and patient needs where they intersect, ensuring that every patient-rural or urban-has a fair shot at the best possible outcome. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is actively addressing dwindling clinical trial enrollment with initiatives like the Virtual Clinical Trials Office, launched in February 2024, to provide centralized staffing support and streamline remote trial participation.
References
- Rathmell WK, Fen M.Meeting patients with cancer where they are-the role of dyad partnerships in oncology. Presented at: American Society of clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium; January 8-10, 2026; San Francisco, CA.
- NIH to address dwindling clinical trial patient enrollment with centralized staffing support. News release. National Cancer Institute.February 29, 2024. Accessed January 10, 2026.
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