How to Find and Enroll in a Clinical Trial for Pancreatic Cancer

For patients with pancreatic cancer, clinical trials are an important treatment option to consider. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) recommends clinical trials at diagnosis and during every treatment decision. But how do you navigate the search and narrow down options? How do you enroll in a trial and manage day-to-day considerations like travel?

In this blog, PanCAN Patient Services Manager Sean Gonzales talks about the steps involved in finding and enrolling in a clinical trial and how PanCAN can be a partner in the process.

When should patients consider a clinical trial?

Patients should consider clinical trials at diagnosis and during every treatment decision. Since each clinical trial’s eligibility criteria is unique, there are trials looking for patients at every stage of their disease, from those who are newly diagnosed to those whose tumor has progressed on one or more lines of treatment. I often say that clinical trials provide patients the opportunity to receive new treatments and potentially better treatments, as well as advance research and improve outcomes. So definitely an option for patients at every stage.

Walk us through the process of contacting PanCAN to begin a clinical trials search. What can a patient expect?

It’s quite easy to start the process. A patient would call or email PanCAN Patient Services and express their interest in finding clinical trials. They would be connected with a Case Manager who’d be able to provide one-on-one support. Patients should expect to be asked some questions necessary to run a search, including the stage and type of pancreatic cancer as well as their full treatment history. These things are important to know because they affect eligibility criteria for trials. For those who want to do some searching on their own first, we also have our free Clinical Trial Finder available online for anyone to access at any time.

What happens next? How do patients move forward after receiving results?

To read the answer as part of the full article, please visitpancan.org.