Giving cancer patients a voice

Far too often, cancer patients and their doctors aren ’t aware of all the side effects that accompany new cancer therapies. Some of these new medications might cause fatigue, muscle aches, general pain and discomfort. A lack of information can lead to patients being unprepared to manage their symptoms or even cause some to delay or stop treatment all together. Historically, many clinical trials did not have a method to analyze or widely report the patient’s experience while undergoing a therapy.  Researchers at UCLA and across the country are trying to change that. To help people in making better-informed treatment decisions, these researchers are studying better ways to describe the patient experience while receiving cancer treatments. The goal is to provide more accurate information about the degree to which a drug can cause side effects. This information is collected by including the patient ’s own assessment of their experience.The research, which is supported with a $3.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, will develop improved ways to describe the results of clinical treatment trials where both expert and patient reports have been collected. This research is being funded by NCI ’s Cancer Moonshot to accelerate cancer research. It will allow four independent research groups to collaborate after they do their own independentprojects.Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center,...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news