Clinical Trials

This is a commentary I wrote for Chaya's new site on the issue of clinical trials. It is a bit dry unless you are considering this option yourself as you struggle with your CLL.

But first a critical point. Please support Chaya's site

It is a bright light in the murky world of CLL. She needs your help and your money.

Her whole article is well worth reading. What follows are my comments on why so few enroll when it so important:

Trials are tough because they are full of unknowns in a disease of unknowns. It is often easier and wiser to choose the devil you know, even if he only has a 20% chance or less of getting you to a CR.

Trials don't promise anything, and so they are often left to those who have no promises outside of the miracle discovery, the next Penicillin.

They also appeal of course who blindly follow their oncologists as they look to fill their rosters (and sometimes their pockets and their CVs). Most have their heart in the right place, but their enthusiasm while contagious, is not always justified for the project at hand.

And there are those who are simply doing the same treatment anyway and might as well join a trial to get a bit of a free ride.

Sad when you think that RCTs (randomized clinical trials) are our only hope (I repeat: our only hope) to find a path to a cure for this incurable disease.