Clinical trials are an important part of clinical care for lung cancer patients. LUNGevity strives to ensure that all people diagnosed with lung cancer are aware of clinical trials and, if possible and appropriate, have access to and the ability to participate in them.
Clinical trials serve as a pathway to accessing life-saving therapies to drugs in clinical development and are a critical part of a lung cancer patient’s treatment journey. Unfortunately, many patients are unaware of clinical trials, do not have access to them, or are ineligible to participate for reasons that are not related to the underlying science of the therapeutic agent under study.
LUNGevity’s work in this area is multi-fold: to make sure patients are aware of and informed about clinical trials and to rethink how clinical trials are conducted and how people access them. Activities include:
- Funding translational research including clinical trials into early detection and therapeutics
- Developing and promoting the role of clinical trials through awareness campaigns
- Conducting research to uncover gaps and barriers to develop interventions and programs
- Educating patients and healthcare providers about clinical trials
- Advocating for public policy reform to remove barriers to participation in clinical trials
- Convening multistakeholder groups to address barriers and promote patient-centric, efficient clinical trials
- Empowering and educating patients through educational conferences and survivorship summits.
- Developing and implementing programs to bridge gaps in accessing clinical trials by underserved communities