Some clinical trials are open to cancer patients in hopes that the treatment, device or drug being tested may help to cure the disease. These research studies involve testing new treatments on human volunteers. The main purpose of a clinical trial is to help health professionals decide which course of treatment is going to be the most effective and beneficial to the patient.
New treatments for cancer are commonly being tested during clinical trials, which has led many people to question whether or not one of these tested products will ever be able to cure cancer itself.
What is Cancer?
As a collective name given to a number of related diseases, defining cancer can be quite difficult. In basic terms, it is a disease that is made up of millions of different cells that have divided and spread to surrounding tissues. Cancer can start anywhere in the body, from the brain to the bowels and from the liver to the spine. It is an incredibly devastating disease and effects millions of people around the world each year. If you have cancer, the damaged cells in your body will not die and instead, new cells will begin to form despite their redundancy. According to Cancer.gov, it is these extra cells that can “divide without stopping and may form growths called tumours”.
Battling Cancer
Because cancer tumours will spread to nearby tissues, it can be difficult to treat and cure the core cause of the problem. A cancer patient may require a number of different types of treatment to help beat the cancer. On the other hand, some patients only go through one type of treatment. Cancer Research states that the most common treatments include radiation therapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
Cancer and Clinical Trials
Cancer related clinical trials often arise and are available for certain cancer patients to participate in. For example, a clinical trial for breast cancer would be suitable for a patient suffering from breast cancer. Eligibility may require certain factors such as where you are in the stages of the disease, for example. Clinical Trial Assistants are often required to assist researchers with various tasks during the process. G and L Scientific can provide professional and qualified CTA’s to be the central contact for the clinical team. This means that they will be able to assist with project communications, correspondence and documentation etc.
