Next Steps! Clinical trials groups in COLONTOWN
From our Scientific Director (and fellow patient) Manju George:
So you have learned about biomarkers, tumor genomic testing and liquid biopsies in the previous sections. You have also figured out how to get those tests done. Or you already had the test results but didn’t quite know what to do with them.
What next? If you aren’t a member of our crc online community, COLONTOWN, please join now!
When you do be sure to mention that you heard about COLONTOWN from COLONTOWN University.
Armed with the information about your biomarkers, you can join COLONTOWN’s main Clinical trial groups (MSS or MSI-H). Depending on the KRAS/NRAS/HRAS or BRAF or Her2/ERBB2 status of your tumor, you can join the Tom and Con’s BRAF clinic or the RAS clinic or the HER2 clinic. We have Analwise Clinical trials for patients with anal cancer and the NIH Lounge for those interested in pursuing clinical trials at the NIH.
These groups are excellent places to meet others with similar tumor mutations as you, and learn their experiences with treatment, clinical trials, treatment side effects etc. They are also great places to discuss your test results.
As the FDA explains in this overview, expanded access, or “compassionate use,” is a potential pathway for a cancer patient to try an investigational (or experimental) treatment outside of clinical trials when there are no comparable or “satisfactory” therapies available.
This video from Ax-S Pharma explains Expanded Access for researchers who might want to use it – but is useful for patients to understand how the system works in the United States.
In addition, I have oncologists running the most promising trials in the CRC space give talks, where they go over the background, pre-clinical data, details of their trials and where available, interim results. The recorded Zoom talks are available in The Lecture Hall here in COLONTOWN University.
We hope to meet you soon in COLONTOWN!
Dr. Manju George, Scientific Director
