Living Room Show Notes: Clinical Trials and Innovative Trial Design

Clinical trials are a critical part of developing future treatments for lung cancer and other diseases, but low enrollment indicates that they are also often misunderstood by people who might benefit from them.  

In June’s Lung Cancer Living Room, GO2 for Lung Cancer’s Chief Patient Officer, Danielle Hicks, was joined by Dr. Karen Reckamp, patient advocate Judy Johnson, and GO2’s Associate Director of Clinical Research, Dr. Andrew Ciupek to discuss clinical trials including clinical trial phases, who typically runs a trial, how trial designs are changing, how to find and participate in a trial, and what to expect as a trial participant.

Speakers: Karen Reckamp, MD, MS, Cedars-Sinai Cancer, Director, Division of Medical Oncology, Associate Director, Clinical Research, Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, Study Chair 52303, Pragmatica-Lung and Co-chair, Lung-Map; Judy Johnson, MBA, SWOG Cancer Research Network Lung Committee Patient Advocate; Andrew Ciupek, PhD, Associate Director of Clinical Research, GO2 for Lung Cancer. 

Discussed in this episode:  

• Each new treatment being tested in clinical trials goes through different stages of testing. Each stage builds on the last and is designed to answer certain questions about the treatment’s safety or how well it works.  
• Lung-MAP is a clinical trial for people with advanced non-small cell lung cancer that has continued to grow after treatment. This trial, known as an umbrella trial, allows many drugs to be tested at one time and for each drug to be tested on the people who are most likely to benefit from it. Genetic testing is done on trial participants to find certain markers that may make them more likely to respond well to a certain treatment.  
• GO2 for Lung Cancer’s LungMATCH program offers personalized clinical trial matching and treatment navigation for anyone interested in understanding which trials might be right for them. 

Please join us on July 18th at 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET for the next Lung Cancer Living Room covering the Best of ASCO 2023 with Sarah Goldberg, MD, MPH, Medical Oncologist and Chief of Thoracic Oncology, Yale Cancer Center. You can join us in our San Carlos, CA office or watch on YouTube Live. 

For more information on the Living Room, other GO2 for Lung Cancer programs, or for support through diagnosis and treatment, please contact GO2’s HelpLine at 1-800-298-2436 or email support@go2.org.