On Wednesday, May 14, 2025, the PHEN Managing Prostate Cancer Survivorship Meeting and Webinar featured a fireside chat with Dr. Sabree Burbage, PharmD, MPH, Associate Director of RWE in S/T Oncology at Johnson & Johnson, and Dr. Keith Crawford, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Trials and Patient Education at PHEN. This hybrid meeting took place at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and on Zoom. More than 80 people attended this webinar on Zoom along with the in-person audience. This Managing Survivorship session was called Beyond the Clinical Trial: What Real-World Evidence Means for Your Prostate Cancer Journey.
At the beginning, Dr. Crawford released a pre-session survey for audience members to fill out and then presented information about real-world data and real-world evidence. Since only about 5% of cancer patients join clinical trials, real-world data is the only way to see how the other 95% of the cancer patient population handles a specific medication or regimen, explained Dr. Crawford. Essentially, real-world evidence is important because it provides information about how treatments work in everyday clinics instead of solely controlled trials.
Real-world data comes from hospital records, insurance bills, surveys, patient registries, and health trackers. Researchers use real-world data to create real-world evidence, which entails how a medicine works outside the clinical trial setting, what side effects appear, and which patients benefit the most from the medication. This can lead to a better quality of care for all patients, described Dr. Crawford.
“Real-world data comes from our everyday care,” announced Dr. Burbage. “When you go to the doctor and your insurance is charged or when you wear your Apple watch and it tracks your healthcare, [you’re creating real-world data]. I use all the information created day to day for patients with a certain disease state or receiving care. I package it into usable pieces to see how we can do better in healthcare and improve care for patients.”
Dr. Burbage also emphasized how patients should ask their healthcare providers about any new treatments and make sure to get all their questions answered.
“I feel so strongly about people getting a voice who have not had a voice or did not get the best hand dealt in healthcare,” she explained.