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Local cancer patients can join trials By Bill Kettler Some Southern Oregon cancer patients will get to know Maya Hawkins pretty well over the next few months. Hawkins will soon begin enrolling cancer patients in studies that will give them access to promising cancer drugs. She�ll be talking with patients who qualify for the studies, explaining everything they can expect to encounter if they enroll. In the meantime she�s learning how the studies have been designed so she can answer patients� questions. "I will tell them everything," the clinical research nurse says. "Then they can decide whether they want to participate." The studies will be conducted locally through the Oregon Cancer Center of Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Cancer patients in Southern Oregon will participate through a working agreement between the cancer center and Medford�s two hospitals, Providence Medford Medical Center and Rogue Valley Medical Center. The local working group is called Oregon Cancer Center-Southern Region. The tests will be "clinical trials," in which patients will receive drugs that have not been used previously to treat cancer or a combination of drugs that have not been used together for cancer treatment. Historically, clinical trials have been conducted in metropolitan areas where researchers had access to large groups of patients who could conveniently come in for regular laboratory tests. The new arrangement will allow Southern Oregon cancer patients to have experimental treatments without traveling to Portland or some other major research center. Hawkins will gather the laboratory results from local patients and forward them to researchers in Portland. Clinical trials have provided many of the most exciting breakthroughs in cancer treatment, says Dr. Grover Bagby, medical director of the Oregon Cancer Center. But they require highly motivated patients who have the discipline to follow a rigorous schedule. "You don�t just walk in and take your drug today and forget it," he says. "There may be a blood count 10 days later, and another test 30 days after that. Patients have to be motivated. Data managers have to make sure patients will go along with them." Researchers design each clinical trial to study how a new treatment affects a specific kind of cancer. Most trials require that patients have not had radiation or chemotherapy. Some are specifically limited to a particular stage in the cancer�s development. Patients will be invited to participate if they meet a study�s specific criteria. "We�re not going to do any cutting edge science here," says Dr. Jere Sandefur, a Medford oncologist, "but we want our patients to get access to the latest drugs. "Patients who want to be at the edge (of treatment studies) can sign up and get these treatments," says Sandefur, who chairs the committee of cancer physicians who work at Medford�s two hospitals. Bagby says the clinical trials will involve relatively few patients at the beginning, but expand over time. "If 5 percent (of patients) are entered in our studies in the first year, that would be miraculous. It will more likely be 1 or 2 percent. A consistent rate of 5 percent (over time) would be good." OHSU�s cancer center won funding for the clinical trials from the National Cancer Institute. Hawkins and the other medical staff involved in the project are awaiting final federal certification to participate in at least four new clinical trials for treating some of the most common diseases, such as breast cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer. The local cancer center started its first research project during the summer. Hawkins enrolled two Southern Oregon women in a national clinical trial that will compare two drugs� ability to reduce the occurrence of breast cancer. About 22,000 women across the United States will take part in the STAR program (Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene) to compare the efficacy of the drugs and their side effects. Hawkins, who used to work with cancer patients as a floor nurse, is looking forward to working on projects that will have broad implications for thousands of people. "Until you get into the middle of (research)," she says, "you don�t realize how long it takes, or how many variables have to be addressed." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.