If you have terminal cancer, it doesn't make sense to not do everything you can. Without these cancer clinical trials, there won't be any progress made. Whatever their reason, cancer patients who participate in clinical trials are the great unsung heroes and heroines in the war against cancer. There are many candidates for clinical trials each year. More than 1.2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in 1999, and 563,000 will die from the disease.
Cancer is second only to heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States.
Despite these statistics, only 3 percent of patients diagnosed with cancer enroll in clinical trials. We cannot progress toward a cure without significantly increasing the number of patients willing to participate in clinical trials. There is much that needs to be done to increase this number. For starters, we in the medical community need to do a better job of informing the general public and patients about current and upcoming clinical trials. All clinical researchers depend on physician referrals from the community to enroll enough patients in trials.