Cancer research is necessary if we are to find more durable treatments for all cancers. While research has come a long way, we still have a long way to go in order to establish quality, durable treatments for many diagnosed with advanced/metastatic disease. 

Typically research begins, “at the bench” with cell lines and in organoids. Once an idea has shown some promise, it often moves on to testing in animals. When an idea, test or therapeutic shows significant promise, it must move to clinical trials. Clinical trials, allow diagnostic tests, screening methods, treatments, and patient care devices and methods to be evaluated for safety and effectiveness in humans. For many patients with advanced cancers, clinical trials may be their best care option.

We would all like research to move as swiftly as possible towards finding a cure. However, many clinical trials close without generating any useful information, or never even start, simply because they can’t enroll enough participants. This slows the pace of research considerably.  

There are many barriers to clinical trial enrollment.  In our #LCSM Chat this Thursday March 5, at 5 pm Pacific (8 pm Eastern), moderator Janet Freeman-Daily (@JFreemanDaily) and guest Stacey Tinianov (@coffeemommy) will lead our discussion of these barriers and how to address them using the following questions:

• T1: What are the barriers to cancer clinical trial participation and enrollment?
• T2: How might awareness of clinical trials be increased?
• T3: How might eligibility requirements be modernized to help increase clinical trial enrollment?
• T4: How might financial, travel, and administrative barriers to clinical trial enrollment be reduced?

Please join us, and bring your experiences and wisdom!  Remember to include #LCSM in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them. You can read a primer on participating in the chat here.