Where do clinical trials fit into a non-melanoma skin cancer treatment plan? Expert Dr. Barbara Ma shares how to bring up clinical trials with your doctor, explains the potential benefits of participation and discusses how trials are expanding treatment options for all patients.
Dr. Barbara Ma, is Cutaneous Oncologist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Assistant Attending Physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Learn more about Dr. Ma.
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Transcript
Jamie Forward:
Where do clinical trials fit into – does the patient need to bring it up? Do the doctors bring it up? How would somebody get involved?
Dr. Barbara Ma:
Sure. So, communication is a two-way street. So, it could come from both ways. So, there usually is a clinical trial portfolio with your treatment team. So, if they have something, then the patient may actually hear it from the treating team first. Otherwise, there is also clinicaltrials.gov. And you can search on your own, if you’re looking for certain clinical trials that are in your area. But it is a two-way street, where it’s something that both patients can bring up and also the treating team. The question of, “Am I eligible for a clinical trial and are there any clinical trials available that could potentially benefit me?”
Jamie Forward:
Sure. And it seems like some people might be hesitant, just based on the fact that “clinical trial” – trial’s in there. So, what would you say to somebody that might be hesitant to participate in a clinical trial?
Dr. Barbara Ma:
Sure. So, clinical trials, you actually benefit from increased monitoring. And it’s actually more care – you can think about it also that way. But it’s also a way to access the newest treatments. Immunotherapy went through clinical trials before it got FDA approved, and that’s part of the process of drug development. But it had to go through a lot of testing before it was FDA- approved – that was the way that you could access immunotherapy, right? So, I think some of their reservations are mainly about fear of the unknown, right?
And I think that if you trust in your treatment team’s decisions and that if they are recommending a clinical trial for you because they think you’ll strongly benefit.
I think that they should strongly believe that “Hey, this is the best treatment plan for me and I’m being offered it for a reason. If this is a way that I can get access to a therapy that has a potential chance at higher response rate, longer lasting response, with potentially less side effects, then it’s something that is definitely worth considering.”
Jamie Forward:
Dr. Ma, how are clinical trials expanding treatment options for advanced nonmelanoma skin cancer patients today?
Dr. Barbara Ma:
Sure. So, the general categories when we talk about treatment options…I think a bunch of them are immunotherapy based. So, a lot of clinical trial strategies usually are in combination or some way to improve immunotherapy efficacy for the non-melanoma skin cancers. The different approaches – I would say that the unmet need is, like, “What are additional treatment options for patients who have progressed on immunotherapy or are ineligible for immunotherapy? So, for example, transplant patients.
Let’s say they’ve gotten a kidney transplant or something that makes them ineligible, what are treatment options that would be available to them? And a lot of the times, this is best answered in the clinical trial. Because it’s not that common of a population that where there are eligible trials. So, I would say that clinical trials open up the treatment options mainly by providing access but also in a controlled and monitored setting. So, there are safety things in place and monitoring for side effects that are very closely coordinated. So, I would say that is something – that’s how trials lead to advances, because it opens up the treatment option availabilities.