The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is sponsoring a patient education event March 22, on Paving the Way for Progress: Clinical Trials in Blood Cancers. The event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn and Conference Center, 1220 First Avenue, Coralville. There is no fee, but advance registration is suggested. To register, contact Wendy Sontag at 800-347-1074 or wendy.sontag@lls.org .
George Weiner, MD, director of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, located at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, talks about the program:
In the United States, how are new drugs discovered and approved for treatment of cancer?
It's a very complex and involved process that focuses not only on the science of whether a new cancer treatment is better, but also on the ethics of the research to make sure that the people who are participating in the study have their rights protected.
It starts out with research in the laboratory to assess whether a new drug might be effective to prevent or treat cancer. Those that are promising are then evaluated in a series of clinical studies with patients. This can very often take many years where we monitor both the safety and how well these new drugs work and then eventually compare them to our current standard treatment, and if the new medication proves better than the standard treatment, then the new medication will be approved by the FDA and will become the new standard. Very often this whole process can take many years.
Are there a lot of myths regarding clinical trials for cancer treatment?
I don't have time to go over them all right now, I do plan to talk about many of them at the event that's coming up.
Myth: People might be enrolled in a trial without being aware of it. In cancer research, that's absolutely not the case; any subject who is going to be involved in a research study will be provided both verbal and written informed consent about the study and will know exactly what's involved in the study before that study begins.
Myth: An effective therapy might be denied to a patient so that they can participate in the study. In fact, we will never do that, we will only try a new therapy if there's solid evidence that the new therapy may very well be better than the standard therapy that is currently being used.
Myth: The quality of general medical care that people get when they're in a research study is not up to par. In fact there's evidence that the opposite is the case, that when people are involved in clinical research studies, they're followed very, very carefully and the quality of care they get in general is actually better than what is seen in people getting standard treatment.
What is the significance of being designated a National Cancer Institute (NCI), like the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center?
Being an NCI - designated comprehensive cancer center is a real honor for us and it's based on the ability that we have to take research in the laboratory, clinical research such as we're talking about today, and then actually research out in the community looking at cancer prevention, and bringing all those pieces together in a way that helps us advance the fight against cancer, both in our region and nationally.
Many of the types of trials we have open here at the University are not available in the community, although there are many outstanding cancer doctors in the community that also participate in some types of clinical research as well.
If someone is diagnosed with cancer and is not a patient at a center with an NCI designation how should they approach their physician about becoming involved in a clinical trial or study?
The first thing they should do is talk to their physician and find out what trials are available in the region, or really anywhere in the country. Many of the studies we have open here at Iowa were opened with other cancer centers across the country; others are only available here at the University.
So the first step would be to talk to their physician. The second step would be to identify an organization, such as the Leukemia Lymphoma Society or the American Cancer Society or the National Cancer Institute to help identify what studies might be available.
Our Cancer Information Service can help with that and their phone number is 800-237-1225. |
