John Crossman is a Brave Man and a Brave Cancer Fighter/Survivor. Check out his story at CNN

As published at CNN.com, Cancer 'iron man' puts hope in drug trials, John Crossman, a man that has been put through more radiation and chemotherapy than anyone ever should, has found hope in clinical trials.  Clinical trials and experimental drugs can provide hope to terminal patients is the message that Crossman wants to portray to the world.  More patients should know about these trials.

And he's right!


In part.


Clinical trials can indeed provide hope for people with terrible cancers that are generally considered untreatable by any other means, however, these trials can also provide a sense of false hope as well.  Clinical trials have more than one research arm; an experimental arm and a control arm.  The experimental arm involves the new drug, chemotherapy and/or treatment to be tested while the control arm is necessary to determine that any observable effects from the experimental arms are statistically valid and not just a weird fluke.  Controls can take many forms including already FDA-approved accepted medications, or placebo pills (sugar pills).  Patients are randomly placed in either research arm.  

This means that a patient could get the newest and best drug possible, maybe even treating the disease.  It could also mean that they get nothing of therapeutic value.  Also since these drugs are experimental, it is not always clear of their true effect.  Are they safe?  Will they actually treat the disease in question?  Will the drug make things worse?  It has happened before.

While I'm not trying to take away anyone's hope, I want people to know that there are risks to everything.  I want people to understand that clinical trials have big risks just as much as any other choice.  I want people to know that clinical trials are not the ultimate in regards to treatment, and, in fact, most compounds that enter clincial trials never become FDA approved.

So if a clinical trial opens up and your doctor thinks you'll be a prime candidate, make sure you ask plenty of questions and know everything about the trial before you agree to anything. 

Here's a few important questions to ask about clinical trials.