Centra Health and the Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center are proud to partner with Lynchburg Hematology/Oncology Associates in offering our patients the opportunity to participate in cancer research studies, or clinical trials.If you are eligible to participate in a trial being held at Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center, you can continue to receive your care right here in your community.Clinical trials also broaden the treatment options for patients.
What is Clinical Research?The goal of this research is to find better ways to treat cancer and help cancer patients. Clinical trials test many types of treatment such as new drugs, new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy, new combinations of treatments, or new methods such as gene therapy. Some of our studies also look at ways to prevent certain cancers. Other studies look at possible causes of cancer and risks of cancer in the overall population.
Clinical trials are a critical part of the research process. They help to move basic scientific research from the laboratory into treatments for people. By evaluating the results of these trials, we can find better treatments and ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer.
Benefits—As a participant in a clinical trial, you will get up-to-date care from our cancer experts, and receive either a new treatment being tested or the best available standard treatment for your cancer. There is no guarantee that a new treatment being tested or a standard treatment will produce good results. New treatments also may have unknown risks. But if a new treatment proves effective or more effective than standard treatment, study patients who receive it may be among the first to benefit.
Safety—Your well-being is important to us. To help protect patients and produce sound results, research with people is carried out according to strict scientific and ethical principles. Our internal institutional review board, or IRB, carefully reviews every study before any patient is enrolled. This helps ensure our patients’ safety.
What to Expect—Our team of cancer specialists and nurses, as well as other health professionals, will follow your progress closely. You may have more tests and doctor visits than you would if you were not taking part in a study. You will follow a treatment plan your doctor prescribes, and you may also have other responsibilitiessuch as keeping a log or filling out forms. Some studies require that patients be checked on even after their treatment is over.
As a participant in aclinical trial, you can help not only yourself but future cancer patients.Many of today’s standard treatments are a result of previous clinical trials.
For more information call our clinical trials coordinator,Donna Washburn, at (434) 200-1495
