Where? When?
Kalamazoo?
File this
one away somewhere. With any luck you
will never need it, but if you do – here it is.
How to find a clinical trial: When Linda was diagnosed with stage 3c
epithelial ovarian cancer neither she nor I knew what that was, nor what to do
about it. We knew that things called clinical
trials existed, but we didn’t know how to find them or whether they could be
trusted, let alone would do her any good.
We relied on our oncologists for guidance – and, sad to say, we didn’t
get much. Knowing about and utilizing clinical
trials probably wouldn't have saved her, but then again, who really knows?. So, you should know about clinical trials.
To find a
clinical trial in your vicinity, simply go to the NIH web site “Clinicaltrials.gov”. It is easy to use, up to date, and
exhaustive. Were Linda alive today I
would go to that web site and type in “ovarian cancer and Seattle”. This request would return 130 studies, of
which 24 currently are recruiting. (The
rest are either full or recently completed.)
Clicking on any of the 24 would give me who to contact, as well as a
description of what the investigator(s) are trying to find out. Searching on “ovarian cancer and Bellingham”
returns 12 studies, three of which are open.
And these examples are based on using “basic search”; there is a button
for “advanced search” that can narrow the possibilities down much further.
Note that
many of these trials are run by drug companies.
Before you shudder and turn away in disgust: they are supervised by the NIH and most
of them have academic researchers on staff.
You may not like drug companies (really, who does?) but we damned well
still need them.
I hope this
turns out to be useless information.
Good info to have on hand. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe Turks are at it again! yesterday my blog was visited by 11 from the U.S., eight from all the rest of the world except Turkey - and 83 "people" from Turkey. I must be the best known writer in all of Asia Minor!
ReplyDeleteOh, I found the actual photo and looked at the back. It says "a snowy day in Seattle, 1985"
ReplyDeleteand that must mean that the car was her old Dodge Dart. It was a great car, until I go hold of it.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that the escort? It was brown.
ReplyDeleteOpen trial for Stage III/IV ovarian cancer. I hope none of you has any use for it.
ReplyDeletehttp://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/02/26/710381/10121970/en/Gradalis-Inc-Announces-Initiation-of-a-Phase-3-Registration-Study-for-Vigil-TM-in-Ovarian-Cancer.html
"randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled".......It must be hard to decide to enter some of these trials.
ReplyDeleteNCI has begun publishing a newsletter again. The latest contains a link to a site that helps you locate an appropriate clinical trial. Here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/clinical-trials/search?cid=eb_govdel
I used it to find trials for Linda: stage 3 epithelia ovarian cancer. I found seven trials within 500 miles of Bellingham, two of which sounded valuable. So this site certainly can be useful, but it is a bitch to navigate!
Here is a very simple video about clinical trials
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?cid=eb_govdel&v=5c_2vSSbxCY
I should have added that I used it to find trials for Linda within 100 miles distance. I got 11.
DeleteNot all clinical trials are equal, as this somewhat difficult and discouraging article exhibits:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.onclive.com/publications/oncology-live/2016/vol-17-no-14/silence-on-ovarian-cancer-trial-debacle-is-disheartening
More on clinical trials. Exhaustive and valuable. Stash this information.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/health/how-to-find-clinical-trials-for-experimental-cancer-treatments.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Here is another article on clinical trials and how to find them:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/health/how-to-find-clinical-trials-for-experimental-cancer-treatments.html?rref=collection%2Fseriescollection%2Fimmunotherapy&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection&_r=0
More on finding the right clinical trial
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/clinical-trials/search/trial-guide?cid=eb_govdel
Thanks. I've filed it with the other information. I hope I never need it.
ReplyDeleteWell, damit, there is a useful NCI UTube video floating around out there, but I can’t find a way to give you the link – it starts to run, then abruptly splutters out. It is called “Paying for Clinical Trials” and, with patience, you probably can get it up by messing with the NCI web page. Oh, hooray – I seem to have found the way. Here it is:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/clinical-trials/paying