Clinical trials are research studies involving people. Some test ways to treat and prevent cancer. All of today’s standard cancer treatments are a result of clinical trials that have already been completed.
Clinical trials may give you access to a new medication or other form of treatment still being evaluated by researchers. Patients at the Marin Cancer Institute may benefit from these experimental treatments while at the same time contributing to a better understanding of your disease.
Currently, The Marin Cancer Institute is participating in clinical trials involving radiation therapies. Please contact your medical oncologist if you are interested in drug study trials.
Study for Women with Early Stage Breast Cancer
The Marin Cancer Institute participates in carefully selected clinical trials that the physicians believe may help treat certain patients. One such trial relates to a more localized form of radiation therapy used following a lumpectomy.
The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) have launched a Phase III clinical trial to determine whether limiting radiation therapy to only the tumor site following lumpectomy, a procedure known as partial breast irradiation or PBI, provides equivalent local tumor control and survival compared to conventional whole breast irradiation (WBI) in the local management of early-stage breast
cancer.
It is important to determine whether PBI works as well as WBI before it becomes an alternative to WBI. The trial, known as NSABP B-39/ RTOG 0413, will involve 3,000 women from North America at approximately 150 study sites. The NSABP and the RTOG are clinical trials cooperative groups funded primarily by the National Cancer Institute. Both groups have conducted decades of research with results that have changed the way cancer is treated.
The MammoSite Radiation Therapy System (RTS): is the most widely used method of partial breast irradiation that works by delivering radiation from inside the breast directly to the tissue where cancer is most likely to recur. Radiation therapy with MammoSite RTS can be completed in up to 5 days, allowing you to get back to your life. Learn more about the advantages of MammoSite RTS.
To learn more about how MCI is participating in these trials or to ask to participate as a patient, please call Mary Pat Manning at (415) 925-7325.
The National Cancer Institute sponsors numerous clinical trials covering a variety of cancers. Other sponsors include drug makers, technology companies and groups like the American Cancer Society. Each trial has a person in charge, usually a doctor, who is called the protocol chair or principal investigator (also called the PI).
Before enrolling in a trial, ask whether the trial has been approved by an Institutional Review Board or IRB. IRBs exist at most hospitals to help safeguard patient rights.
To see if a clinical trial is right for you, the following organization can help:
National Cancer Institute: www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials
National Institutes of Health: www.clinicaltrials.gov
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