If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer, or if your cancer has returned or is not responding to treatment, you may want to consider being treated as part of a clinical trial.

A clinical trial is a patient-assisted research study designed to determine the safety and effectiveness of a new treatment. These studies are carried out only after researchers have found that the treatment was safe and effective in laboratory and animal studies. Researchers carefully track the health status of the individuals who enroll in their clinical studies. This follow up may continue for five or ten years, and sometimes even longer, in order to fully assess the impact of the new treatment.

Because new studies are getting underway all the time, oncologists (doctors who specialize in treating cancer) are not always aware of all the studies available to their patients. This means that cancer patients frequently must do their own research to find the studies that may be right for them. In order to help patients and their families find the studies that may be right for them, Joan’s Legacy will soon be posting more information about how to find available studies. In the meantime, you can find more information about lung cancer clinical trials, as well as a patient matching service through the Lung Cancer Alliance.