Today’s standard therapies for cancer exist because people have participated in clinical trials – yet choosing to participate in a cancer clinical trial is an important personal decision that can be intimidating for many patients. In order to better help patients understand cancer clinical trials, the reasons to participate in them, and clinical research at Mount Sinai, The Tisch Cancer Institute has released a new video, “Clinical Trials at Mount Sinai: Moving the Field Forward.”
The video, which can be seen on Mount Sinai Hospital’s YouTube channel, highlights the importance of cancer clinical trials and features several people who participated in clinical trials at The Tisch Cancer Institute. The 4-minute video also demonstrates the teamwork and dedication of the faculty and staff involved in clinical trials at Mount Sinai – including doctors, nurses, social workers, and regulatory staff.
“The role of clinical trials is to bring to patients the latest discoveries from the laboratory and try to provide them with new treatments,” says Steven J. Burakoff, MD, Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute. “It’s really about the physician and the patient working together to advance the field and get the best care possible,” says Marshall Posner, MD, Director of the Cancer Clinical Trials Office.
The patients featured in the video, who were treated at the Dubin Breast Center and the Derald H. Ruttenberg Treatment Center, also told their stories on the Mount Sinai website in order to better share their experiences and encourage others to consider enrolling in cancer clinical trials. These stories include a breast cancer patient who enrolled in two clinical trials; an oral cancer patient who enrolled in a clinical trial and had his spouse also participate in a research study; and a woman with head and neck cancer whose life was saved by Mount Sinai not just once, but twice.
For more information on cancer clinical trials at Mount Sinai, visit www.mountsinai.org/cancerclinicaltrials.