Clinical Trials

SAB77

Hi, Everyone. My dearest friend was recently diagnosed with TNBC. She is having trouble deciding whether or not to participate in a clinical trial that was offered to her. The doctor couldn't provide solid stats on the trial because the trial is always changing. The protocol would be the same with the doctor who doesn't do the clinical trial. The only difference with the 2 doctors is the clinical trial opportunity.

Have any of you been presented with this opportunity? How did you decide to participate or not? She's struggling with this. If she goes with the doc without the trial, she'd start treatment this Wednesday.

The doc with the clinical trial is over an hour away. She is married with 2 kids ages 12 and 10.

Please let me know if you can share your experience.

Thanks so very much.

santabarbarian

If the treatment plan is exactly the same, then the only reason to *possibly* favor the clinical trial is if it would limit out of pocket expenses. She may want to check that. The usual reason for doing a clinical trial is to get your hands on a drug that is thought to be promising, but is not fully approved yet.

Flynn

I participated in a trial that has advanced several new treatments. I did the trial drugs for 12 weeks and then proceeded to traditional chemo. It added time on to treatment but offered the chance to benefit from a new drug. I would not have participated if it meant giving up tried & true chemo or if there was a control arm (placebo). My treatment ended up doing really well for BRCA triple negative patients but not appreciably better for non-brca's. I'm not BRCA so I did respond but it was not a miracle drug for me. I feel pleased to have helped researchers try out my treatment and I did not experience any lasting side effects. Adding an extra 12 weeks (I had 6 yo twins at the time) of treatment had some negatives.

SAB77

Flynn, thank you so much for sharing your experience. That's very helpful. In my friend's trial, there is the tried, positive part of the trial(with a few life long side effects). There's also a part of the trial that's a newer drug without as many studies yet and thirdly there is a control arm. The control arm is the standard treatment that she'd have received if she wasn't going with the trial. She is stage 3c and she feels like she has to try this trial even though there's a chance that she won't get the more proven drug. She decided she wanted to be able to tell her kids that she did everything she could 😥. Again, thank you so much for your response.

SAB77

Thank you so much for your insight! It is very helpful!