ISPY clinical trial

I was in the I SPY 2 trial (well, technically, still am, but I completed the active treatment), but I landed in the control arm, so I got standard chemo (Taxol + AC). I was not HER2 positive. For HER2 positive cancer control arm would include whatever chemo they usually use with herceptin and possibly perjeta. I felt good about being in the trial even though I didn't get experimental drug. There are several of those, but I knew ahead of time that if I would land in the experimental arm, I would get Keytruda in addition to the standard chemo.

Other aspects of the trial include several MRIs to monitor the response. I appreciated those, because my type of cancer (ER+/HER2-) sometimes doesn't respond to chemo well. It was important to me to insure chemo drugs were doing something, so that we could either switch to a different drug, or just go to surgery.

They also draw blood at specific times, and from what I read they monitor circulating tumor cells, but you are not privy to those results.

Most experimental drugs show real benefit.