We are concerned Canadians who have been impacted deeply by cancer. One of us (Stewart) is a cancer physician who has seen far too many patients die; the other (Bradford) is a cancer survivor who has recently lost his beloved wife to cancer. She was directly affected by the issues we raise below...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research is responsible for evaluating drug safety and efficacy, including oversight of clinical trials and principal investigators...
Common cancers may arise from several different mutations, and each causative mutation may require different treatment approaches. There are also several mechanisms by which malignancies may become resistant to therapy, and each mechanism will also require a different therapeutic strategy.
Randomized, clinical trials are the strongest method we have to define the efficacy of new drugs. Recently, however, novel agents that show remarkable responses with minimal toxicity in patients with advanced cancer have been discovered [1], and these present a challenge for the ethical conduct of randomized trials...
Randomized controlled trials with a survival endpoint are the gold standard for clinical research, but have failed to achieve cures for most advanced malignancies. The high costs of randomized clinical trials slow progress (thereby causing avoidable loss of life) and increase health care costs...
Regulations and ethical principles require that investigators seek consent and that patients participate in experimental studies only under circumstances that minimize the possibility of undue pressure and/or enticements...
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Americans younger than 85 years of age and kills one American every 56 seconds. Advances in understanding of cancer biology have given us the potential to develop new, effective targeted therapies...
THE PROBLEM After impressive victories against hematologic and germ cell malignancies, the battle against common epithelial cancers has evolved into a grinding war of the trenches, where statistical victories...
