Skip to main content

The Benefits of Clinical Trials

Clinical trials represent leading-edge medical science. However, less than 5% of adults diagnosed with cancer each year are enrolled in them. While there are a number of various treatment approaches being offered, 8/10 patients are not aware that this is a viable option for them. If they are offering treatment options above and beyond the standard treatment, why are patients not utilizing this valuable resource?

Results from surveys and focus groups concluded that the vast majority of patients are unaware of clinical trials and doctors are not enrolling patients due to a lack of time, staffing, funding, and resources. Indeed, enrolling a patient in a trial requires a significant amount of time and resources for physicians. Furthermore, there are some serious misconceptions held by some physicians and patients.

Molecular targeted clinical trials need to be viewed separately from other trials.

Since targeted trials are based on well-established molecular mechanisms, they do not require large-scale studies to produce relevant statistical data. This is an important distinction as the techniques used to identify the more general chemotherapy drugs currently being used, were based on applying the same drug to many patients with a particular form of cancer, and did not consider the genetic variation amongst the patients, their cancers, or diet. In the case of these generalized and less stratified trials, large numbers of patients were needed to produce relevant statistical data.

A common myth is that a patient may receive a placebo (control group) instead of the treatment being tested (single or double blind studies). However, clinical trials for cancer do not typically use this approach. There are two considerations regarding this point. Firstly, if a placebo or control group is used in a trial, it is almost always the standard treatment for that cancer that the patient would have otherwise used.

Secondly, most targeted clinical trials are open label and the patient has the choice of what role they perform. Furthermore, if the tested drug starts to show significant benefits, the control group is given the option to switch to the drug as it would be highly unethical to deny a patient with a specific genetic marker, effective treatment.

The use of molecular signatures in identifying optimal therapies has problems and benefits.

(1) Molecular targeted clinical trials require expensive and complex genetic profiling.

(2) Molecular targeted clinical trials provide a tool to address the heterogeneous nature of cancer and have far less side effects than general chemotherapy/RT.

While the numerous variations of therapeutic approaches combined with the complexity of navigating the copious clinical trials databases has proved a daunting task, this effort can be greatly mitigated by having a statistically determined molecular outline that allows the user to focus on finding trials based on pre-defined molecular variables (markers). Not only does this approach reduce the time and effort required, it allows for personalized treatments (better results with less side effects), reduces the patient burden for the doctor and medical system, and provides scientific data. Furthermore, even if the patient is not accepted in the trial, they are provided with important molecular data that can greatly improve further treatment efforts.

And finally, using multiple targeted clinical trials allows the patient to greatly reduce the overall genetic variation of their cancer, one trial at a time.

Alex Rolland is a cancer researcher, educator, and CEO of Cancer treatment Options and Management (CTOAM). CTOAM is a personalized cancer research company that specializes in using the most current peer reviewed scientific research on cancer diagnostics, treatments, nutraceuticals, and clinical trials to educate patients on the treatments and diets that provide the best statistical chances for success.


View the original article here

Popular posts from this blog

Lung cancer survival rate - Stage 2 lung cancer

When a person looks for a medical professional about the stage 2 lung cancer, one of the first questions that come to mind is: what is my lung cancer survival rate? This is largely influenced by the medical records showing that lung cancer is one of the lowest chances of survival of cancers in the world. One must realize that these statistics are only numbers and a variety of factors that can affect your chances of being cured. The lung cancer survival rate is affected by several variables. One such variable is age. Younger people tend to have a greater chance of survival for people over 50. This is due to the strong natural defenses younger than the older. Medical records also indicate that women with lung cancer in stage 2 have a greater ability to be cured of their male counterparts the parties. The spread of malignant tumor is a very important factor in determining the survival of lung cancer exchange rate. The tumors may spread from the lung tissu...

Analysis: Life saving lung cancer test to set off cost debate

By Bill Berkrot NEW YORK | Wed Jun 29, 2011 6:07pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A landmark study showing that routine lung screening of heavy smokers and former smokers using low dose CT scans could save thousands of lives is sure to set off a fierce debate about the cost of such testing on an overburdened healthcare system. The U.S. National Cancer Institute studied more than 53,000 people between the ages of 55 and 74 deemed at high risk of developing lung cancer. It found that screening with the three-dimensional X-rays cut deaths by 20 percent. Details of the study and a discussion of its implications were published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, lending additional weight to initial findings that were released in November. The discussion noted that radiologists using more advanced CT equipment than was available for the study could lead to an even larger reduction in lung cancer deaths. At the same time, the potential for many more false positive results could ri...

What is Lung Cancer - Incidence, Signs, Symptoms, Causation, Prognosis and Treatment

INTRODUCTION Lung cancer may also be the most tragic cancer because in most cases, it might have been prevented, 87% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Lung cancer has long been the most common cause of cancer death in men and since 1987 it has also become the most common cause of cancer death in women. Lung cancer is the second most commonly occurring form of cancer in most western countries and although the lung cancer incidence is less common in developing countries, the rapid increase in the popularity of smoking will see the number of lung cancer sufferers in those countries quickly catch up with the western world. Lung cancers can arise in any part of the lung, and 90%-95% of cancers of the lung are thought to arise from the epithelial, or lining cells of the larger and smaller airways (bronchi and bronchioles); for this reason, lung cancers are sometimes called bronchogenic carcinomas or bronchogenic cancers. The most common type of lung cancers are epidermoid carcinoma...