Clinical Trials (Video)

Dr Tim Price discusses the benefits of clinical trials for patients and for cancer research.

Hello, my name is Dr. Tim Price. I’m a practicing medical oncologist in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide. I joined the Editorial Advisory Board of the Virtual Cancer Centre two years ago, and my main areas of interest are clinical trials, particularly educating patients as to their relevance, and the care of patients with the diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer.

About clinical trials

Clinical trials, I believe, are a crucial part in the fight against cancer. It is through these trials that new drugs are investigated, and are then shown to have benefit to our patients. It is sometimes difficult for patients to understand the different phases that medications have to go through to reach our clinics. The media often reports only bits and pieces, and it is important that we can help clarify where discovery fits into the whole picture. For drugs that are well down the track of development, clinical trials allow us to access these drugs for patients much earlier than would normally be the case. At our centre for example, we aim to have trials available for most tumour types so we that can maximise this access.

Participating in a clinical trial

I believe it is also important that we make our patients aware that being in a clinical trial is not only a way of accessing the most up to date therapy, but there is also evidence that being in a trial can improve outcome and maximise the safety of their therapy. In my own area of expertise for example, we now have a number of drugs that have become available over the last five or ten years via these trials that have improved survival figures by around 30-50%.

Future advances in cancer treatment

There are also ongoing trials of newly developed drugs that are becoming more targeted in their effects, with the aim to further improve control and hopefully cure, and then associated with this we’ll see less side effects. Via Virtual Medical Centre, we’ll be aiming to keep you up to date with these advances. Thank you for your time.