UNDERSTANDING CANCER RESEARCH TRIALS

What is A cancer Research Trial?

A cancer research trial is a research study conducted for patients who have been diagnosed with a cancer (or other major illness) and generally involves testing of new treatments or finding ways to improve existing treatments.

Cancer research trials are conducted all over the world in most large hospitals to improve treatment for many different diseases. Such trials help us find out if a promising new treatment is safe and effective, as well as giving us a better understanding of the current standard treatment, both of which can improve patient care and outcomes by identifying more a effective treatment or lessening the side effects of treatment.

Cancer research trials represent a process of continual improvement in treatment of disease. Many substantial advances in cancer cure rates today have been achieved by continuous, step wise improvements in treatments over time, through successful cancer research trials. This has been achieved by hundreds of thousands of patients entering trials all over the world.

Should I Participate in a Cancer Research Trial?

Many patients choose to participate in trials for two main reasons:

·         Potential Treatment Benefit – if there is a clinical trial under way for your disease, then there is an opportunity for you to participate in leading edge activity associated with improving the treatment of your disease, which may result in a better outcome for you as an individual.

·         Quality Assurance – Due to the quality assurance required for the scientific credibility of a clinical trial, you will receive additional review and monitoring of your treatment, as well as more extensive follow up than would be required if you were given a standard treatment outside of a clinical trial. 

Patients should be aware that the conduct of a cancer research trial is something that requires the support of many doctors and other experts, hospitals and cancer treatment centres, ethics committees, funding bodies and most importantly, patients. TROG also has additional quality controls, so for example a TROG trial cannot proceed without the endorsement of the TROG Membership and the Scientific Committee, which is assurance that the trial is supported by a consensus of a large representative group of Australian and New Zealand Radiation Oncologists and has been reviewed in detail by experts on the Scientific Committee.

So while there can be no guarantee that participation in a trial will result in a better outcome, involvement in a TROG cancer research trial is an assurance as a patient that you are involved in something that is well researched and supported, and is at the forefront of expert opinion on how to improve treatment of your particular disease. You are therefore involved in an important process, which may provide a direct benefit for you, as well as future patients with your disease.

Another important assurance for patients is that the ethical and legal codes associated with the conduct of cancer research trials in Australia and New Zealand are extremely strict and TROG's approach to these issues is thorough and rigorous. All TROG trials must be reviewed by the ethics committees of the participating hospitals, made up of doctors, scientists, clergy and lay people, who must approve the start and continuation of all cancer resarch trials at their hospital.