A 39-year-old woman with breast cancer is taking part in an on-going clinical trial of up to 3,000 patients for Taxotere. This cancer drug is being combined with other chemotherapy drugs for the first time as a first-line treatment to test its effectiveness in the prevention of relapse. She describes her experiences:
"On my first visit to the oncologist, he spoke about a new drug which was currently on trial here for about a year and asked me to consider participating in the study. He put me in touch with the research nurse who gave me full details of the trial. I was told it was entirely my decision whether I wanted to participate or not. If I chose not to, I would be given the drugs normally used in chemotherapy. Initially I was horrified and upset to be left with the decision to choose what to do. Also, because there were four arms to the drugs trial (two of which included Taxotere with other chemotherapy drugs and two of which involved the usual chemotherapy drugs) and I wouldn't know which arm I was on. My oncologist reassured me that if I wasn't on the Taxotere arms of the trial I would be receiving the best treatment currently on offer. I went on the Internet and found out about Taxotere and the drugs used in chemotherapy. Once I was equipped with this knowledge, I was ready to participate. I didn't mind which arm of the trial I fell into.
"The research nurse made contact with me again and we arranged an interview. She told me all about the trial, the potential side effects and the follow-up care. She gave me a form to take away and think about before I joined. The benefits I got from participating was the contact I had with this nurse throughout my treatment rather than contact with a team of professionals. If I was sick, I could contact her. I found this tremendous. I felt more involved with the whole treatment as a result of this detailed contact. I'm glad it is all over. However, as part of the study, I go back for blood tests and physical examination every three months for the next number of years and I have a mammogram and chest X-ray every year for the next five years. This close follow-up is another reason why I opted to go on the trial."
Christopher Barron (74) is one of 26 Irish patients taking part in a six-year international clinical trial. The trial is a comparision study of drugs for hypertension which are currently on the market:
"I have suffered from blood pressure problems for quite some time and I had a triple bypass a few years ago. I was asked if I would be interested in being part of a trial for new blood pressure drugs and I said I would. The main reasons why I joined the trial is that my father also suffered from hypertension. And, during the last few years of his life, he got mini-strokes.
"I believe that if the drugs that are available now had been around in his day, he would have had a better quality of life in his final years. I felt that if there was some way I could help to improve the treatment, I would. I wasn't nervous about joining the trial. I have been on the trial for two years now and I come for check-ups every six months. My blood pressure has been perfect ever since I joined the trial. But, I have a friend who also joined the trial who left it because he got a terrible rash.
"He went back onto the tablets he had been taking before the trial began. If I have any problems, I phone the research nurse and I visit my GP if I need to. I get the tablets free which doesn't really make any difference because I also take daily tablets to lower my cholesterol and thin my blood. These alone cost more than the £42 a month maximum under the drugs refund scheme."