Treatment in a Research Setting

When you come to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) for a transplant, you will be a patient in a research center. What does this mean?

All of our transplant patients, adults and children, are treated in clinical trials. These are research studies seeking to improve results for transplant patients, including improved disease-free survival and better quality of life during and after the transplants. Most of our patients take part in multiple clinical trials over the course of their treatment.

The value of research
When you choose to have your treatment at SCCA, you benefit from the knowledge gained from research studies that former patients took part in. In the same way, the studies you take part in will benefit other patients in the future. Studies give you access to state-of-the-art treatment options. A new option is offered only if it represents an improvement over the standard of care.  

Patient confidentiality is always protected in research studies. You will not be identified by name or initials in any research.

You will be asked to sign a written consent form for each study that you participate in. Your signature means that the study has been explained to you, that you understand the risks, that you have had a chance to ask questions and that you freely agree to take part.

Long-term participation
We will continue to follow you after your transplant. Our Long-Term Follow-Up program allows us to help individual patients with the health issues they may have post-transplant and also to collect data that is useful to our research goal of improving transplant therapy.

Feel free to ask your doctor or nurse if you have any questions or concerns about participating in research studies. You may want to read our Patient Guide to Clinical Trials.

April 2007