The Role of Investigational Therapy…

What does it mean to discuss palliative care with a patient instead of searching for additional investigational options?  Whose choice should it be to end the search and give up hope?  Those questions, and more, are discussed by Drs. Freireich and Kurzrock in this article.

From the article:

When patients receive hopeless diagnoses, it is important for the physician to discuss palliative care, but it is equally important—and perhaps more so—for the physician to be knowledgeable about, and to discuss frankly and positively with the patient, the options for participating in clinical research at major research centers where new therapies are being developed.

[Dr. Freireich] has been a physician involved in caring for cancer patients with diagnoses of terminal illnesses for more than 50 years and has personally cared for hundreds of patients who have had dramatic, life-altering benefits from investigational therapies. [He] has assisted in caring for the first patient with metastatic choriocarcinoma to be treated with high-dose methotrexate, a patient who is still alive today 50 years after her initial diagnosis, and has cared for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who, rather than going to palliative care, engaged in clinical trials that have not only benefited them, but have transformed a uniformly fatal illness 70 years ago to one that is now 85% curable. The important point to be made is that one must be cautious in discarding the possibility of investigational therapy.

An important note relating to both the individual good and the public good follows:

In the case of investigational therapeutics, the patient is willing to participate in a process that offers not only hope for the patient as an individual, but makes a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge that will benefit patients in the future.

The full article can be read here.

Read more from Current Issues...

Current Issues

• Health 2.0, Patients as PartnersCan empowering patients change the nature of drug research and accelerate progress?
• The Role of Investigational Therapy…An article on the choice, and the chance, to hope, by Dr. Emil J. Freireich and Dr. Razelle Kurzrock
• The ACCESS ActAn Introduction to and education on the Access, Care, Compassion, and Ethics for Seriously Ill Patients Act, referenced as S. 3046 and H.R. 6270

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• Welcome, from the Director of Accelerate ProgressA welcome and introduction to our organization and our website, dedicated to accelerating progress for patients fighting life-threatening illnesses
• Accelerate Progress commences search for new Executive DirectorAccelerate Progress is looking for strong organizational leadership
• The Clinical Trials System is Broken, By Dr. Vincent T. DeVita JrAn editorial penned by the Editor-in-Chief of Nature Clinical Practice: Oncology