Lung Cancer - New Clinical Trial

This week we had our site initiation meeting for a new clinical trial in patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. We are excited about the possibility of this promising treatment for our lung cancer patients in North Central Washington!

Lung Cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Lung cancer is most curable when it is in its earliest stages. We have the chance to cure lung cancer all the way up to Stage III disease (there are four stages, I-IV). The higher the stage, the more difficult it is to get rid of the cancer completely. Lung cancer causes the most cancer deaths in both men and women in the USA and is the second most common cancer in both men and women (prostate and breast cancer are more common in men and women respectively). Stage IV disease represents lung cancer that has spread from the lung to other parts of the body. These tumors that originated in the lung but have spread to other places and are growing there are called metastasis. The standard treatment for stage IV lung cancer is chemotherapy. Although chemotherapy has been demonstrated to increase both survival time and quality of life in patients with stage IV lung cancer, there is so much room for improvement.

This new clinical trial is for patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. Various hospitals, clinics and oncology offices are opening this trial right at this time all across the USA. The trial is designed to compare the standard chemotherapy for stage IV disease with a promising new combination of chemotherapy drugs. We are one of the first clinics to have this trial now available to our patients.

The way the trial works is that patients with newly diagnosed stage IV lung cancer are considered eligible for the trial. After reviewing information on the trial and signing a consent form to participate in the trial, each patient will be selected to one of two groups . The first group will get the standard chemotherapy consisting of the drugs carboplatin, paclitaxel and bevacizumab. The second group will get selected for the new, promising combination of drugs consisting of carboplatin and premetrexed. Both groups will be followed over time. After several years of observation and care, and after several hundred of patients have participated across the country, we will then know which group lived longer and had the best quality of life. We are hoping this will be a great advance for our stage IV lung cancer patients!

We are committed to bringing novel and exciting treatments to patients with all cancers. We thank and respect all patients who are willing to participate in such important and promising oncology research.

Best regards always,

Mitch G.

Comments

[Morristown Cancert treatment]

Hi to all,It’s actually informative stuff. I really prefer to read.There is a lot of helpful information within your post.....Hope to learn rather a lot and have a pleasant experience here!Thanks for post. my best regards guys!