Clinical trials are research studies designed to see if new medical procedures work well in humans. They are meant to answer specific questions, which can be about screening for a disease, diagnosing a disease, treating a disease or preventing a disease. Each kind of clinical trial will gather information to help doctors deliver the best care possible for patients.A clinical trial focusing on prevention might be asking the question, “If certain vitamins or medicines are taken, will they prevent a specific disease?” For example, do people who take specific medications for high blood pressure have less heart disease? Cancer prevention studies might be looking at medicines or vitamins that could prevent cancer. They also might look at what a person could do that might lower his or her risk of cancer, for example, not smoking.
A clinical trial focusing on screening would be looking to see if a specific test might find a person with a certain disease but no symptoms. Any test that can find asymptomatic patients means they can be treated much earlier and hopefully with a better outcome. This is particularly important in dealing with cancer. An example of a cancer screening test is a pap smear. Pap smears can tell a woman’s doctor not only if she has asymptomatic cervical cancer, but even if she has a precancerous condition. This can be treated and cancer prevented.
Diagnostic clinical trials look at finding the best ways to diagnose a specific disease. For example, a study might look at a particular blood test to see if it correlates with a specific cancer. Sometimes screening tests and diagnostic tests can overlap.
Clinical trials focusing on treatment measure a new treatment against a known treatment or no treatment of a disease. Cancer trials never compare new treatment with no treatment unless there is no known treatment for the particular cancer. Most cancer trials compare the best standard treatment for a particular cancer with a new treatment. For patients with rare or difficult-to-treat cancers, a clinical trial may be the best way to get treatment. They will be treated by doctors who are very familiar with their particular cancer, be followed very closely with state-of-the-art tests, and will either get the best current treatment or something new that might work better.
At the current time there are many trials looking at mesothelioma. There are studies looking at various blood tests that could screen or diagnose mesothelioma.The National Cancer Institute is working on an imaging technique called optical coherence tomography. It is being tested to see if it can find precancerous changes in the airways of the lungs early, with the objective of being able to prevent the cancer from developing. There are studies looking at many different combinations of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery.
If you have Stage 4 cancer, or Stage 2 or Stage 3 that is difficult to treat, a clinical trial using new agents or new combinations may be your best option.
For further information on open trials, please go to http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/home
and enter mesothelioma in the search engine.
Dr. Kaplan
