Clinical Lung Cancer Treatment Trials
Every lung cancer patient is different, and therefore even tried and true treatment options may not always work for everyone. Some patients find they do not want to deal with the side effects from traditional lung cancer treatments. Others discover that those treatment methods simply do not work effectively in their individual case. Therefore, doctors and patients are constantly looking for new strategies for dealing with lung cancer. One way to do this is clinical trials.
Clinical lung cancer treatment options generally will include trials that allow a new or experimental treatment option to be tested in human patients. These trials pave the way for innovative treatments for lung cancer and may offer hope for patients for whom traditional treatment has not worked. Sometimes, a clinical trial explores a brand new treatment; other times a clinical trial is used simply to investigate an improvement to an existing treatment. In either case, clinical trials can serve as an added treatment option for patients with lung cancer.
Clinical trials test many diverse types of lung cancer treatment options. Everything from new chemotherapy drugs to different surgical techniques to vaccines and biological therapies may be tested in a trial.
Clinical trials are a necessary step in the process of getting a new treatment approved for use in humans. In the United States, before any trials occur the Investigational New Drug Application must be submitted. It will contain data about laboratory and animal testing that took place previously. If the data seems to suggest that the treatment could benefit humans, the drug will move on to the first phase of the clinical trials.
Phase I in a clinical trial attempts to determine how the new treatment should be administered to patients. This could mean anything from orally to intravenously. Dosage is also studied at this point. This phase of the trial will include only a few patients and will attempt to discover what side effects the treatment has and what the correct dosage should be.
The second phase is when researchers begin to analyze how well the treatment works. Safety information and benefits of the new treatment are established at this point. Then the study moves to the third phase, in which a promising new treatment is given to a large selection of patients. This phase of a clinical trial often involves randomization, in which patients are randomly selected to receive either the new treatment or a standard treatment. If a treatment has reached this phase, it is believed to be at least as effective as standard treatments. Patients are randomized into new and standard treatment groups simply to identify which treatment is more effective of the two.
Patients looking to enroll in a clinical trial should take the time to find the one that is right for them. Various services, including one from the Lung Cancer Alliance, work to match patients with an appropriate clinical trial that fits their individual diagnosis and situation. Patients may be asked about their diagnosis and treatment history in order to be matched with a clinical trial.
Patients should also weigh the risks and benefits of participating in a clinical trial. While a new treatment may achieve better results than a standard treatment, there are still risks in trying any new treatment, especially in phases I and II. But a clinical trial can provide a patient who ha already tried traditional treatments with a new, potentially effective option that results in the discovery of a brand new treatment for lung cancer.
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