VOLUNTEERS OR VICTIMS - PATIENTS VIEWS OF RANDOMIZED CANCER CLINICAL-TRIALS

Randomised clinical trials are essential for the objective evaluation of different treatment strategies in cancer. However, in the field of oncology, very few of the eligible patients are entered into trials, a nd most treatments have only been tested on a small percentage of pati ents. For doctors, a major deterrent to participating in trials is the lack of resources - particularly time, but often also the local facil ities. This report suggests that patients themselves are willing to ta ke part in clinical research, and are attracted by being treated by a doctor with a specialist interest in the disease and encouraged by the possibility that their progress will be monitored closely. With the r ecent NHS changes, it is timely for the Department of Health and other national health departments to consider carefully what can be done to ensure that no new treatments are adopted without effective evaluatio n. This will require departments of health to identify and implement w ays to facilitate accrual of appropriate numbers of patients onto rese arch protocols (whether non-randomised phase I or phase II studies or large, multicentre phase III trials) over short time periods.