Advances in treating cancer often start in a scientific laboratory where potential therapies are first developed and tested. When one of these potential therapies shows promise in treating cancer, it is tested in many ways, including using animals to determine its possible effectiveness and safety. If the potential therapy passes these tests, then it goes through a series of strict government reviews for human safety.
After it is reviewed by many physicians and scientists, and receives government approval, it then may be offered to human volunteers for further testing. These volunteers are sometimes referred to as “research participants,” or by the outdated term, “research subjects.” Research participants who meet very specific medical criteria (such as cancer diagnosis, stage of disease, and many other factors) may be eligible to participate in an experimental protocol. One type of experimental protocol is a clinical trial, which tests cancer treatments on people. Clinical trials may test brand-new treatments, or may involve treatments that already are in use to treat other diseases or cancer types, but physicians want to see if the therapy may be effective with different types of cancer.
Or, doctors may want to test a new combination of treatments to improve effective-ness when combined. Clinical trials are the backbone of advances in treating cancer and other diseases. If your family member decides to participate in one, he or she will not only get state-of-the-art treatment, but also will be playing a meaningful role in advancing cancer treatments, with the potential to save other people’s lives. Clinical trials are primarily conducted at large research hospitals and are often supported by pharmaceutical companies and government research funds. However, trials can sometimes be offered at private physicians’ offices and other non-specialty hospitals.
Participants are often needed to enroll in clinical trials; in fact, some trials have a hard time getting enough people to enroll primarily because patients don’t know they exist. If you are interested in investigating clinical trials, a good first step is your local oncologist or primary care physician—whoever is discussing treatment options with you. However, physicians may not be aware of all the hundreds of clinical trials open at any given time, so you may want to do some research on your own and then discuss your findings with the doctor. Three excellent resources are the American Cancer Society (ACS), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Cancer Information Service (CIS). ACS and NCI both have searchable databases online that provide descriptions of the research, general eligibility criteria, and contact information. CIS allows you to call by telephone to obtain similar information.