December 5 #LCSM Chat Topic – Is the System of Clinical Trials Fair For Patients?

By Dr. H. Jack West IS THE SYSTEM OF CLINICAL TRIALS FAIR FOR PATIENTS? DO YOU BELIEVE IN IT?  I just watched the movie “Dallas Buyers Club”, about the challenges of getting new drugs for HIV/AIDS just as the first effective treatments were being identified in early clinical trials. It portrays the DEA, FDA, and medical establishment as essentially obstructing the process of patients getting access to life-sustaining treatments, and it led me to wonder whether patients and caregivers feel that the system of novel agents being tested in clinical trials is… Read More

Tweets for #LCAM2013 Week 3 — Hope for Lung Cancer Patients

  For Lung Cancer Awareness Month (#LCAM2013), the #LCSM team compiled a list of tweet-sized lung cancer facts – one tweet for each day in November. We ask all #LCSM participants and lung cancer advocates to tweet the fact of the day at noon Eastern time (9 AM Pacific) to help with trending.  You can come here to copy the tweet of the day, or  if you prefer, you can retweet the fact after @LCSMChat tweets each day at 11:55 AM Eastern Time. Our tweets for the third week of Lung Cancer Awareness Month… Read More

How Much Evidence Do We Really Need to Change Treatment Recommendations? – October 10

By Dr. H. Jack West One ongoing controversy in the world of managing cancer, especially one in which cures are elusive, is how high the bar should be to guide treatment recommendations. The “gold standard” to change treatment is a significant improvement in the primary endpoint, ideally overall survival, in a prospective, randomized phase III trial with several hundred or even several thousand people. In some settings, treatment recommendations may not even change until a few randomized phase III trials show the same significant improvement with a new treatment approach. But the reality is that sometimes we want… Read More