Treatment Options for Cancer Patients
Cancer treatments are developed through a sequence of experiments, first in laboratories and animals (preclinical testing) and then in patients (clinical trials). If the clinical trial results show that the treatment helps patients, the treatment becomes part of standard treatment.
A new cancer drug must undergo rigorous testing before the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers approval. First a new drug is studied in test tubes, then animals. If the drug looks promising, it's tested in people through clinical trials.
The FDA estimates that only 1 of 5 drugs makes it from preclinical research to approval for marketing source: FDA website
The FDA is responsible for reviewing the data from clinical trials and approving only safe and effective treatments.
What does that mean? All drugs have some side effects, and no drug works for everyone. Cancer drugs tend to have serious side effects (toxicities), which must be weighed against potential benefit from the treatment. A treatment that's totally effective against cancer but kills the patient doesn't help, and neither does a treatment that's safe but ineffective.
If FDA approves the drug, it can be sold for use by patients.
After a drug is approved, research continues in order to improve how patients use the drug.
Creating new cancer treatments and maximizing the benefit from existing treatments is a very complex process. However, many cancer patients learn about the drug development process and clinical trials in order to help them find additional treatment options for their disease.
Standard Treatment options
top of the pageMost cancers have standard treatment options, defined by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as "a currently accepted and widely used treatment for a certain type of cancer, based on the results of past research." Many of these treatments are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Resources
National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Information section
1-800-4-cancer / 1-800-422-6237
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and American Cancer Society (ACS) Guidelines for Patients
1-800-ACS-2345 / 1-800-227-2345
Non-Standard Treatment
top of the pageNon-standard treatment options are treatments other than the standard treatments, and can include:
Are New Cancer Drugs Better Than Existing Cancer Drugs?
top of the pageNew drugs - experimental drugs being tested in clinical trials - often sound great in early news stories. Remember:
- No cancer drug works for every patient who uses it
- Most cancer drugs have significant side effects
- We don't know if a new treatment will be better than the existing treatment until comparison trials are complete.
There are some new drugs - for example, Glivec - which offer a dramatic improvement to standard treatments. Unfortunately, most new drugs don't fall into that category.
Most patients are best served by standard treatments, which have been scientifically tested and have a body of research behind them. If standard treatments are either not effective or not available, a clinical trial is generally the best option.