Lung Cancer Treatment Plan Advice | Where Do Clinical Trials Fit In?
Lung Cancer Treatment Plan Advice | Where Do Clinical Trials Fit In? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
What questions should patients ask about a lung cancer treatment plan? Lung cancer expert Dr. Thomas Marron shares key considerations when choosing therapy and discusses where clinical trials fit into planning.
Dr. Thomas Marron is Director of the Early Phase Trials Unit at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Marron is also Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Learn more about Dr. Marron.
See More from EVOLVE Lung Cancer
Related Resources
Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
What questions should patients be asking about their proposed treatment plan?
Dr. Thomas Marron:
I think that in lung cancer, most patients are going to get the same therapeutic approach offered to them wherever they go.
It’s not like certain types of cancer where there’s 10 different ways to treat it. But there are some nuances and depending on the location in which you’re getting treated, whether it be in an academic hospital or a community setting, you may have different chemotherapies offered, immunotherapies offered. You may have different combinations offered. And so, I think it’s important to always ask your provider what other options are there, and why are they recommending one option over another. But I think it’s also really important that patients get second opinions.
A lot of my patients, even my in-laws are always very skittish about getting a second opinion because they don’t want to insult their doctor, who they feel very close to. And I would say, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Any good doctor is 100 percent okay with a patient going and getting a second, third, fourth opinion because to us, the most important thing is that you have confidence in the decisions that we’re making about your treatment.
I always tell patients, I’m basically a waiter here offering you a menu of options and giving you my recommendation. But it is up to the patient in the end what treatment they receive and how long they receive it for.
And if they decide ever to discontinue it. And I think that the more information, the more smart people looking at you, the better.
Katherine Banwell:
Where do clinical trials fit into a non-small cell lung cancer treatment plan?
Dr. Thomas Marron:
So, that’s a phenomenal question and one that I hope that everyone asks their providers when they see them because the reality is that while we are curing some patients, the vast majority of patients are not cured. And I think that all patients should at least consider a clinical trial, whether it be a first line clinical trial. So, the first medicine that you receive for your cancer, or at the time of progression.
I think particularly, once patients progress on the first line therapy, those patients we really don’t have a cure for, even if we have some palliative chemotherapies or eventually these antibody drug conjugates to treat them.
And so, I think everybody who is progressing on first line therapy should always consider a clinical trial. And I think it’s extremely important that patients realize the need to ask their providers about clinical trials, but also be an advocate for themselves and go out and get second opinions, get third opinions and see what trials are available in the community and even in other cities.
Because often times in New York City, I’ll have completely different clinical trials than my colleagues at the other five institutions in the city. And it’s really important that patients advocate for themselves, and they identify everything that’s available.
