The Reality of Clinical Trials - Part 1
Often a frustrating slog through inaccurate information and hidden conflicts of interest
The response to our recent Quackfoolery post has been swift and very stimulating. Good! People are thinking, debating and sharing their stories. We also received excellent recipes involving gluten-free Boswellia and hyper-ketogenic sea urchin entrails. Hell hath no fury like a #SuperFood-anista scorned.
All humor aside, the majority of messages that we received asked us to comment on clinical trials in brain cancer.
In critical disease areas, people quickly realize that the clock ticks loudly and every day counts. Almost all brain cancer patients will consider enrolling in a clinical trial at some point.
We have evaluated many clinical trials for Julie, and actually enrolled her in one at the beginning of her Journey in Jan-2022 (Spoiler: she quickly withdrew to pursue the strategy that resulted in her durable CR. It’s all about the #Data).
In thinking about a piece on clinical trials, we were reminded of a truly outstanding article on the subject published late last year in the Timmerman Report and written by David Shaywitz, MD/PhD with reference to some fantastic and poignant blog posts penned by Dr. Bess Stillman, a Mayo Clinic affiliated ER doctor whose husband is battling recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. When we first read the article, we were blown away by the balanced and compassionate treatment of what can be an obtuse and frustrating subject for cancer patients. Frankly, we could not imagine writing something that would be comparable to Shaywitz’s article or Dr. Stillman’s posts, so we reached out to Luke Timmerman* and asked him for permission to link the article to this MissionGBM post. He quickly agreed, and emphasized that the piece is freely accessible to all readers regardless of whether one has a Timmerman Report subscription (full disclosure: we have been a loyal subscriber for years, and recommend Luke’s work frequently).
Think Clinical Trials are Working OK? Ask a Cancer Patient
MissionGBM readers can navigate to the article here. We hope that you find it as eye-opening as we did. Unfortunately, the agonizing description of the search to identify and enroll in a clinical trial for Jake Seliger (Dr. Stillman’s husband) is all too commonplace in both our professional and personal experience. As an industry, we must do better – particularly in Neuro-Oncology.
Onward!
*Luke Timmerman is the Best Darn Journalist in Healthcare…period. He puts in the effort to get to the bottom of stories, and is comfortable highlighting both the triumphs and the pitfalls of the Healthcare industry in a concise and balanced manner. Luke is one of the few journalists in our world with whom top investors, entrepreneurs, senior executives and policy makers actually enjoy speaking. Frustrated with the slow demise of classical journalism, he unleashed his entrepreneurial drive to create the Timmerman Report as well as “The Long Run”, a stimulating podcast series of interviews with industry leaders.