Research - clinical trials for colon cancer

Cancer research trials are carried out to try to find new and better treatments for cancer. Trials that are carried out on patients are known as clinical trials.

Clinical trials may be carried out to:

• test new treatments, such as new chemotherapy drugs, gene therapy or cancer vaccines
• look at new combinations of existing treatments, or change the way they are given, to make them more effective or to reduce side effects
• compare the effectiveness of drugs used to control symptoms
• find out how cancer treatments work
• see which treatments are the most cost-effective.

Trials are the only reliable way to find out if a different operation, type of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or other treatment is better than what is already available.

 

Current research

Depending on your situation, you may be asked to take part in a clinical trial. If you are due to have a planned operation you may be asked to take part in the EnROL trial, which is comparing conventional surgery with keyhole surgery. The trial is trying to find out if keyhole surgery will help people to recover more quickly.

Another trial, called the FOxTROT trial, is looking at giving chemotherapy before and after surgery. Some people in the trial will also be given panitumumab. Panitumumab is a monoclonal antibody drug.

Taking part in a trial

There can be many benefits from taking part in a trial. Trials help improve knowledge about cancer and develop new treatments. You will be carefully monitored during and after the study. Usually, several hospitals around the country take part in trials. It‘s important to bear in mind that some treatments that look promising at first are often later found to be not as good as existing treatments, or to have side effects that outweigh the benefits.

If you decide not to take part in a trial your decision will be respected and you do not have to give a reason. If you do decide to take part, you are allowed to withdraw from the trial at any time. In either case, there will be no change in the way that you are treated by the hospital staff and you will be offered the standard treatment for your situation.

Blood and tumour samples

Blood and tumour samples may be taken to help make the right diagnosis. You may be asked for your permission to use some of your samples for research into cancer. If you are taking part in a trial you may also be asked to give other samples which can be frozen and stored for future use, when new research techniques become available. These samples will have your name removed from them so you can’t be identified.

The research may be carried out at the hospital where you are treated, or it may be at another hospital. This type of research takes a long time, and it may be many years before the results are known. The samples will be used to increase knowledge about the causes of cancer and its treatment. This research will hopefully improve the outlook for future patients.