Clinical trials are very important in developing new drugs for cancer patients. We at Sarah
Cannon offer clinical trials to our patients to really enhance the outcome and to improve
survival response rates and have patients a better quality of life with the new types
of drugs we're testing. Drugs we're testing can range from very targeted, very specific
drugs, matching a target on the cancer or immunotherapy or even combination of both
or sometimes new chemotherapies. Trials should be always part of a decision-making process
while you receive treatments, whether it's in the first line second line or third line
in the treatment. At Sarah Cannon we offer clinical trials of all ranges often very early
clinical trials where we just get an understanding of clinical trials, but also randomised clinical
trials in the later development stage.
There's great excitement about immunotherapy trials in recent years and we have seen great
success bringing particularly through early clinical trials new immunotherapy drugs to
our cancer patients, developing those as standard of care. For example, in lung cancer, melanoma,
colorectal cancer, immunotherapies are now approved standard of care drugs through our
clinical trials we're offering here at Sarah Cannon. Immunotherapy trials are so important
because they differ from the standard chemotherapy often by activating our own immune system
to fight cancer. So, effectively the immune therapies we give today through infusions
or other means help your immune system to tackle cancer proteins, cancer cells and control
cancer. And we have really seen in some cancers where we had very short survival or non-responsive
to chemotherapy, immunotherapy changing the game and having patients long surviving than
they would do with chemotherapy. So really exciting times and at Sarah Cannon we offer
a variety of clinical trials, not only single agent immunotherapy, but also combination.
Combinations with targeted drugs, matching drugs to genetic profile or combinations of
immunotherapy and chemotherapy to improve the outcome of chemotherapy. So really a broad
spectrum of clinical trials of immunotherapy trials here available at Sarah Cannon.
So immunotherapy trials are generally very safe, because we give them as part of a clinical
trial where we monitor patients on a regular basis. So if we identify a safety concern
or a side effect, we connect-- my clinical team and I, we connect very quickly and administer
for example drugs to stop the immune response. Generally compared to chemotherapy, the mechanism
is completely different. We effectively through immunotherapies and manipulating the immune
system let the immune system responds to cancer cells. So as opposed to chemotherapy where
we poison the body with toxic drugs which effectively destroys all fast growing tissue
including cancer but also healthy tissue like your bone marrow, the gastrointestinal system;
where you may experience mouth ulcers and diarrhoea, immunotherapy is more when we deal
with side effects in overshooting immune system which usually can manage very easily if we,
as a team, as a clinical team know early enough. So that's why it's so important to communicate
with your clinical team on a regular basis. It's really important to ask your doctor,
your team where you can find a clinical trial, a suitable trial for you. This might be at
your local centre or at a reference tertiary centre a bit further away from you, but always
ask for a clinical trial if you discuss next treatment option or in general treatment option.
Clinical trials really have so much advanced and I personally would say clinical trial
is always a better option than standard of care. Standard of care is 10-20 years old
whereas the clinical trial always either incorporates standard of care plus something new particularly
with immunotherapies, it is the next generation often five to ten years ahead what standard
of care is. So always ask for a clinical trial, encourage your doctor. If they don't have
an answer for you, there are websites available or through our Sarah Cannon network, you can
ask for clinical trials and we will guide you to the right team and the right network
if that is needed.