Physicians at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance treat patients with cancer; they also conduct research at the SCCA parent organizations: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine, and Seattle Children's.
Many people come to SCCA to gain access to leading-edge treatments, including clinical studies (also called clinical trials). They want to expand their options for treatment to include the latest and most innovative treatments, and they know that for many types of cancer the best chance for a cure is found in a clinical trial.
Cancer clinical studies are research studies that test how well new medical treatments work in people. Clinical studies may examine new kinds of screening, diagnosis, prevention or treatment. For example, they may test a new chemotherapy drug for toxicity or test a different dose for an established drug.
The goal of clinical studies is to increase our knowledge about cancer and develop more-effective, less-toxic cancer treatments.
Without clinical studies, new drugs and treatments could not be approved. No matter how promising a new treatment looks when tested with lab animals, it cannot be used to treat people until it has been carefully evaluated through the several phases of a clinical study. Every advance in cancer treatment in recent years has come out of a clinical study.
Take just one important example: Bone marrow transplantation, which is considered the most important advance in cancer treatment of the last quarter century.
Bone marrow transplantation was developed by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, one of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance's parent organizations. Without research and clinical trials, the improved outcomes and increased survival rates resulting from transplantation would not be possible.
In the pages that follow, you will find information about clinical studies. This section is written for cancer patients who are considering participating in a clinical study, and their families and friends.
Clinical trials and studies come in three phases. Learn about those phases here and which phase you are likely to participate in for your treatment.
Clinical studies are essential to cancer research. Without clinical studies, new drugs and treatments could not be approved. Read more about why clinical studies are so important for cancer patients.
Your experience in a clinical trial will depend on the type of trial you enroll in and the type of cancer that you have. Read more about what you can expect in a clinical trial.
The decision to take part in cancer research belongs to you. The decision you make will probably come from scientific evidence, personal opinions and feelings about health and disease. Read more to help you decide if a clinical trial is right for you.
Once you've decided that you would like to participate in a clinical study, the next step is to find a study that is right for you. This page will give you the next steps in the process.
Make sure you understand the difference between rumors and facts about clinical studies before deciding whether to participate or not.
Many cancer patients decide not to participate in clinical studies because they are afraid that their health insurance will not cover their treatment. Before you reject a clinical study for that reason, ask Seattle Cancer Care Alliance staff for help in determining what coverage you have.
SCCA patients are participate in studies conducted through Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine, and Seattle Children's.
If you decide a clinical study isn't for you, at SCCA, you will still receive the best treatment available to treat your disease.
A list of terms and their definitions to help you understand more about your disease and treatment.
The Internet makes searching for an appropriate clinical trial easy and fast, but some web sites leave out vital information. As you read, ask yourself these questions:
Patient safety is extremely important to us at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. We do everything we can to protect our patients against unnecessary risks while in cancer treatment, whether in a clinical trial or not.
More than half of all American children with cancer take part in clinical studies, which is one reason that cure rates for childhood cancers have improved so remarkably over the past few decades.
If you are an older patient, you may think clinical studies are not for you. But this is not necessarily the case. Although older patients are still underrepresented nationally in clinical trials, this trend is starting to change.
