The Clinical Trial Physicians and scientists from University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center are involved in numerous clinical trials to study the effectiveness of new breast cancer treatment options. Such innovative approaches to cancer treatment provide potentially lifesaving benefits to our patients. Progress made in the treatment of cancer does not represent an individual breakthrough, rather it is the result of many carefully designed clinical trials comparing standard therapy with a potentially better new approach. The actual treatment regimens for clinical trials are called protocols - a kind of recipe for combining and administering various drugs and other forms of treatment such as radiation therapy. Each Ireland Cancer Center clinical trial undergoes rigorous medical, scientific and ethical review by University Hospitals' medical board and Institutional Review Board.
Clinical trials offer the best that scientific medicine has to offer.
They provide a measure of hope to patients for whom other treatments have failed. At the University Ireland Cancer Center we believe that cancer patients should play an active role in their own care. Patients are consulted at each stage of treatment. The potential risks and benefits of each available option are explained, and patients participate in decisions about their treatment. One hurdle in treating breast cancer with a bone marrow transplant has been that the patient's bone marrow often is damaged by the cancer.