Why Take Part in a Clinical Trial?
- Clinical trials investigate new cancer treatments to find out if they are safe and effective.
- Women with cancer who participate in clinical trials tend to have better outcomes than those who don't.
- It's important for people of all races and ethnicities to participate in these studies, so researchers can determine how the drug that’s being investigated affects people like them.
"Clinical trials are supremely important. It’s really paramount to how we advance in the treatment of gynecologic cancers," Dr. Stéphanie Gaillard, medical oncologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, tells SurvivorNet. "All of the advances that we have made recently are because we’ve performed clinical trials."
Read More Participating in a clinical trial doesn’t just benefit medical research overall. It might also help you live longer. "We know, based on some research, that women who participate in clinical trials tend to do better overall," Dr. Gaillard says. "There can be a number of reasons for that. Possibly because of the treatment received, but possibly because they’re being seen regularly and monitored very closely." The take home is that women who participate on clinical trials have better outcomes. There has been a notable lack of diversity in clinical trials, which Dr. Gaillard says needs to be remedied. "It’s certainly important for women of all races to participate in clinical trials. In some trials we’ve learned that an Asian population may not do as well with a particular therapy, perhaps because of the way they may metabolize the drug. And we wouldn’t otherwise know that unless we have enough patients from different groups in the trial to understand those differences." If your doctor doesn't offer you a clinical trial, ask if you are a good candidate for any ovarian cancer studies. Make sure you understand what the study is trying to accomplish, and what risks are involved, before you enroll.
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