Dr. Doug Hawkins, chair of the NCI-funded Children’s Oncology Group (COG), discusses advances in treating children with cancer, COG’s role in conducting clinical trials, and efforts like the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative and Molecular Characterization Initiative.
On August 11, the Food and Drug Administration gave accelerated approval to trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) for adults with non-small cell lung cancer that has a specific mutation in the HER2 gene. The approval was mainly based on the results of the phase 2 DESTINY-Lung02 clinical trial.
Researchers have confirmed that the immunotherapy drug dinutuximab (Unituxin) can help children with high-risk neuroblastoma live longer. The finding is based on a trial of nearly 1,200 children with the disease.
Clinical Trials Information for Patients and Caregivers
In some phase 2 and all phase 3 clinical trials, patients are assigned to groups that receive different treatments. The process of assigning patients to these groups by chance is called randomization. This page and the resources below explain why and how patients are randomized in clinical trials.
View this infographic to learn more about how people participating in clinical trials are randomly assigned, or randomized, to different treatment groups.
This phase 2 trial will test the combined use of paclitaxel with the oral drug nilotinib for people with tumors in the lining of their abdomen that have spread from ovarian, colorectal, or appendix cancer (called peritoneal carcinomatosis). Doctors want to see if giving the drugs together shrinks tumors enough for patients to have surgery.
This clinical study will test whether people who have had cancer treatment get more pain relief by adding an internet-based program to usual care or from usual pain management care by itself. Study participants will be randomly assigned to the internet program or standard pain management. After 6 months, researchers will assess pain scores, and will give those receiving only standard care access to the internet-based program.
This phase 3 trial will test how well chemotherapy and radiation therapy work with or without the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab (Tecentriq) for people with localized muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Doctors want to see if adding atezolizumab to standard treatment improves bladder preservation, overall survival, and duration of complete responses.
