Clinical Trials
Current Clinical Trials
Hope for Today, Innovation for Tomorrow
Get access to all of the treatment options possible at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center.
Why Participate?
Reasons to become a clinical trial participant include:
- Being closely monitored by the study coordinator and physician.
- The possibility of access to a new medication before it’s FDA approved and available to the public.
- Learning more about your disease or condition and the latest advances in treatment.
- Contributing to the advancement of medical care.
Related Story: See how Saundra’s clinical trial treatment left her pancreas almost normal.
Clinical Trial Eligibility
A clinical trial is an option for cancer patients at any stage of their cancer journey. In fact, it is recommended that you seek out a clinical trial as soon as you are diagnosed. You don’t have to wait until other treatments have failed to enroll in a trial.
Each clinical trial has specific eligibility criteria — requirements that patients must meet before they can participate. The clinical trials nurse navigator will help you make a decision.
Who pays for a clinical trial?
The clinical trial sponsor (whether it's the government or a company) may pay for the experimental treatment, special testing and extra doctor visits.
Some health insurance companies will cover the costs of procedures that patients would have even if they were not in a clinical trial (routine costs that are considered "standard of care"). For Medicare patients, routine costs are covered in all Medicare-qualified clinical trials.
You'll be responsible for any costs not covered by the clinical trial sponsor or your health insurance company. A nurse navigator can help you understand more about what costs will be your responsibility if you decide to participate in a clinical trial.
Getting Started
Contact us and schedule a consultation with a nurse navigator who specializes in clinical trials:
Clinical Research Recognition
- In September 2013, the FDA approved the combination of Abraxane and Gemcitibine to treat advanced pancreatic cancer after HonorHealth researchers led a successful international clinical trial around the approach. This is now the standard of care.
- Erivedge, the first drug to receive expedited FDA approval for treating inoperable basal cell carcinoma, went from Phase I clinical trials at our cancer center to FDA approval in five years, half the time it typically takes for a drug to be approved.
- RADAR (Rapid Detection and Assessment of Response) is a one-of-a-kind rapid cancer detection program developed through collaboration between local physicians, HonorHealth's Research Institute and the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center.
- We are one of the original Dream Team sites for cancer research by Stand Up to Cancer, making our center the only one in the Southwest participating as a collaborator in the $18 million SU2C pancreatic cancer Dream Team grant. Researchers here have been conducting clinical trials of new treatments designed to cut off the fuel supply of nutrients that feed pancreatic cancer cell growth.
- Our researchers identified a way to predict which patients with small-cell lung cancer may be resistant to first-line chemotherapy. The discovery is critical because patients with small-cell lung cancer often do not get a second chance at therapies to combat the aggressive form of cancer.
- We were the first site in the world for clinical trials of a drug called OSI-906 to combat adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare but deadly cancer that attacks the adrenal glands.
- We were the world's first clinical trials site for NMS-1286937, a new drug designed to stop cancer from spreading by preventing the process of cell division.
- We're accelerating promising new cancer treatments through the study of cancer genetics thanks to partnerships with the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a leader in developing treatments for complex diseases and genetic studies, as well as leading pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and academic universities.