Clinical Trials And The Medical Field

In the movie, Living Proof, several clinical trials took place to ultimately reach the goal of getting the medical drug Herceptin approved. This particular drug is often referred to as HER2+ (Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 – positive and is typically treated during the early stages of breast cancer in which it has spread to the lymph nodes. A clinical trial is a part of medical research that in such a way attempts to prevent, detect, or treat diseases such as cancers. The clinical trials can range from new drugs being distributed to the market, new surgical procedures, or simply to improve treatments that we now have and use today. Rarely can a single clinical trial establish and assists a medical procedure/drug to become approved.

There are some trials that are being worked on around the world right now. For example, in 2013 a trial of an experimental treatment for advanced malignant melanoma took place in London at the Royal Marsden Hospital. One of the patients received three intravenous infusions, and after the second one the lumps that had been in her throat and breast had vanished. While those results were extraordinary, it is by far not the only time to have happened. There have been many similar trials that had the same results as this one. These new anticancer drugs are being called cancer inhibitors and some scientists are saying it could be the “turning point in cancer treatment.” Instead of

There are several disease that are we still do not know much about despite copious amounts of research. Cancer and Alzheimer’s are two major examples of these mysterious diseases. Although the scientific method is useful in the development and research on various medications and treatments, there are still limitations. Patients react to treatments in various ways, because bodies and systems vary from person to person. There is simply too many variable to be able to pinpoint the exact reaction a patient may have. Clinical trials and studies can narrow down these reactions down to a list of possible side effects, but doctors can never know for sure how a patient will respond. There are many unknowns and treating actual patients is much different that conducting an experiment investigating how two medications will effect an experimental unit. During a designed experiment, the experimenter can control all the variables except for the experimental variable and get clear straightforward results. On the other hand, when treating a real patient with a severe illness, such as cancer, the physician has to keep an eye on all body systems. They cannot simple give all of their attention to the area of the body that is currently affected. In these practical settings, there is simply too many variables for the scientific method to be as useful as it normally

Our country is one where every day, new medical treatments and medicines are being discovered and being approved to help Americans battle all of the different diseases and conditions that affect us. In order for us to be able to get access to those medications and treatments, many people agree to become part of clinical trials, they are the first to receive the treatments, this helps to understand how the body will be affected and if the medication will be effective. People who are part of these clinical trials, go through extensive medical testing, and they must be of sound mind and

Clinical trials, or a test before a treatment is approved to be safe for human consumption, have been dated back to the biblical times. Recorded in the “Book of Daniel” a king and military leader performed the first known clinical trial (Evolution of Clinical Research). Although his experiment was nowhere near what we conduct in today's society scientist, doctors, and other researchers before them have learned through trial and error, and they have used clinical trials to study diseases. In 1774 James Lind followed through with the first clinical trial of the modern era studying scurvy.

The process used to pool the data together was clinical trial decision making. The main factors influencing this process consist of patient, provider, and treatment. Two studies specifically explored decision making by the patient. Education requirements impacted decision making since understanding the risks and benefits of clinical trials was the most important factor taken into consideration by the patient. Educational interventions were noted to have increased patient enrollment. (Biedrzycki, 2010).

People should participate in clinical trials because they are safe, a way to earn money, a positive impact on the medical field, easy to perform in, and highly successful. A clinical trial is similar to a research study that is conducted for many reasons.

The author believes that biomedical research is the way of better understanding medicine and without randomized clinical trials the field of medicine will have insufficient information. He argues that randomized clinical trials are the most scientifically sound and ethically correct means of evaluating new therapies. The belief of a physician being unethical when running randomized clinical trials is rejected by this article because previous trials on patients can have a better outcome on future patients. This article stresses that randomized clinical trials must be carefully designed that has an intended purpose of gathering data to improve the wellbeing of patients. If the patient is to endure a clinical trial he/she must be properly informed of the risks of the trial and the health of the patient should be high priority. Overall this article explains the importance of randomized clinical trials and debunks the idea of randomized clinical trials as being unethical. This article uses a utilitarian point of view and gives reasons why these trials can be in the best interests for both the patient and society.

In theory, "that evidence-based medicine (EBM), determined by the outcomes of clinical trials, would be an objective decision-making tool to help patients and their doctors make treatment decisions, once a patient has been diagnosed" (Torrey 2012:1). However, many problems exist with how the clinical trials that define evidence-based medicine are designed. Not all clinical research is created equal a small clinical trial with a homogeneous set of patients may not be applicable to the situation of Patient X. The psychological and social needs of patients are unique, and while scientific evidence must ground practice, each case must be evaluated on an individual basis. A sixty-five-year-old patient in the peak of health may not have the same health goals as one which is suffering from a chronic illness.

To start out, it is important to differentiate between practice and research, especially in this discussion of therapeutic research trials. Practice is meant to treat an individual in order to improve upon their quality of life. The practice of medicine generally yields good outcomes and is not inherently risky, with some exceptions. However, research on the other hand includes subjects or participants to learn something about people or a topic as a whole. While it seems that the differences are clear, there are many times when the lines between the two may blur. One of the ways that the differences are more ambiguous is in the case of

Clinical trials are essential for medical progress. Although new treatments are discovered through trials, participating in research is different from receiving treatment. Yet, some human subjects fail to comprehend the purpose of phase 1 clinical trials and believe that they will benefit from participating in the study. This failure to recognize potential harms is called therapeutic misconception (TM). To reduce TM, focusing on communication is crucial. Understanding the perception that subjects within these trials have, can inform whether or not researchers should change how they communicate with subjects. This essay will illuminate three possible ways to mitigate the risks associated with TM and place responsibility for mitigating these risks on institutional review boards

Cancer. We all know someone who has suffered from it or has passed away because of it. Cancer now affects one in every three people, and is the second highest cause of death in the United States. For decades, the medical community has been on the hunt for a cure for cancer, and have been subjected to intense ridicule from the public because of a lack of progression toward a possible cure. In recent years, many scientists, doctors, researchers, and the general public have come to believe that the cure for cancer is being suppressed because of this lack of progress. Those who say it is suppressed claim that the drugs used to treat cancer actually cause cancer, making a patient sicker and sicker. As a result, the patients are forced to spend

The peer-reviewed biomedical literature is, in fact, the key source for making treatment decisions in a rational, fair and objective manner (JAMA), and scientists are not the only people who benefit from publication of clinical trial results. Also, patients and their physicians gain knowledge and information from reading about current clinical research (Chen, 2016).

It is now accepted worldwide that before a drug is brought into routine use its efficacy, safety, and the balance between two need to be formally demonstrated. The efficacy of new drugs nowadays is almost invariably established with a technique known as ‘randomized controlled trial’.

Cancer is subject to multiple studies and still one of the most misunderstood diseases. Today, millions of people are living with cancer and many have had cancer and are battling with the secondary effects of the treatments that include, chemotherapy, type of drug that prevents cells to reproduce, radiation, surgery or combination. Cancer treatments presents side effects that include depression and decrease of the immune system to respond against infections; therefore, patients are at risk of any kind of complications during the treatment. Also