Hi all my hubby has lung cancer spread to bit in back and liver had 4 days radiotherapy now asked if he would do clinical trial treatment Has anyone any info on this Thanksxx
I hope that you and your husband are doing as well as can be.
That is a good sign that they want to give him the opportunity for clinical trials. There are a few different ones and he will need to have the diagnosis and meet the criteria to suit them. As they are run by companies trying to find new treatments often the patient is taken extra special care of and get a bit more attention from the trial than the standard cancer treatment care.
Trials have various phases they must get through. So it depends on how new it is as to which phase they are on. I believe its 1, 2 and 3. The later the phase the more it's been used and it's passed the previous phases.
This link explains more about how the trial process works.
Here is a list of all the trials going on at present. When your oncologist mentions a trial you should find it on there and go into what phase it is on, the criteria to meet and read of any results from the trial.
Please be advised, often the trial must have a 'control' group too. This means patients don't always receive treatment or the same type of treatment if in the same trial. They may get a placebo or get different routes of treatment. I think due to this you need to read up thoroughly about it as they will not tell you which group you go in to.
If you accept a trial it may or may not exempt you from another type of treatment in the future too.
I hope this helps you and your husband to decide what is best for him.
