Clinical Trials

Cancer research is a solution that solves many impediments to a patient receiving appropriate cancer care including treatment costs and lack of options. Research trials provide more treatment options for patients, often cover travel costs, and shift most of the cancer care costs to the trial sponsor (pharmaceutical company). Unfortunately, today, only 3-5% of cancer patients ever enroll on a clinical trial. The only way to develop new cancer treatments is to enroll patients on research trials. The faster trials are accrued, the faster a determination can be made by the FDA for a potential cancer treatment. There is a limited number of cancer treatments approved for each type of cancer. Yet there are hundreds to thousands of research trials for each type of cancer that hold potential and hope for cancer patients. There are many reasons why only 3-5% of cancer patients concern participation in a clinical research trial, including lack of physicians who participate in research trials, lack of patient knowledge that research trials exist, and a number of myths & misconceptions regarding research that often scares patients away.