Cancer Clinical Trials
A Commonsense Guide to Experimental Cancer Therapies and Clinical Trials
Tom Beer, M.D., and Larry Axmaker, Ed.D.
Publication Date: April 2012
Price: $16.95
ISBN 13: 978-0-9823219-7-3
Trade Paperback: 192 pages
Size: 6 x 9 inches
Cancer Clinical Trials is the definitive guide for anyone considering therapeutic options in addition to standard cancer therapy. It will help readers decide if a clinical trial is a good option for them, to choose an appropriate trial, and to navigate through the clinical trial process. The book includes lists of questions to ask, things to look for, things to watch out for, and places to look for information.
It is written in the context that cancer treatment can broadly be divided into two broad categories: standard care, which involves regular, approved treatments, and experimental or investigational therapy, which involves participating in a clinical trial.
The book begins with a discussion of what cancer is and the many ways in which it is treated—including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and new strategies now in use or that will be available in the near future. It considers all aspects of clinical trials, including how they are designed, how to find and evaluate them, how to become a participant, and details of what they will involve in terms of time and commitment. A chapter on available drugs now used to treat cancer will be especially helpful.
If you are reading this book, you probably fall into one of these groups:
• You have cancer and are seeking something more, and a clinical trial might just be what you are looking for,
• You know someone who could use the information to make an important choice in his or her life, or
• You’re a doctor or a health professional who can educate and help guide patients through the decision to consider a clinical trial.
The companion blog to Cancer Clinical Trials, Cancer Clinical Trials, provides up-to-date information about ongoing and completed trials, experimental therapies, and other information of interest to everyone concerned with clinical trials.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Tom Beer, M.D., is a medical oncologist who leads a research and clinical trial program at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. He has been directly involved in over 100 clinical trials and has treated many hundreds of cancer patients. He has led trials at all phases, including those that use a medication previously only tested in animals for the first time in people, as well as large international trials that compare treatments to each other that, when successful, change the standard of cancer care.
It is Tom’s hope that this book will help readers enter into the often mysterious world of clinical trials armed with information and well prepared to make needed decisions.
Larry Axmaker, Ed.D., is a retired psychologist, teacher, and writer who has cancer and has participated in several clinical trials. He recently published a book about prostate cancer, Real Men Get Prostate Cancer, Too that chronicles his sometimes serious, sometimes humorous journey with his cancer.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
How should you use this book?
An overview of core concepts in clinical trials
1. What is Cancer and how is it treated?
WHAT ARE CLINICAL TRIALS AND HOW ARE THEY ORGANIZED?
2. What is a clinical trial?
3. The types of clinical trials: Four phases and more
4. Randomized trials and placebos
5. Clinical trials that have changed cancer care
DECIDING WHETHER TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLINICAL TRIAL
6. Is there a clinical trial that’s right for me?
7. Who is looking out for you, and what can you expect?
8. Who pays for clinical trials, and what can they cost?
MEDICAL TREATMENT OF CANCER NOW AND IN THE FUTURE
9. Cancer drugs currently in use and being tested in trials
10. The future of cancer treatments and clinical trials: Personalized medicine
A final word
Tell us what you think
Glossary
Resources