Lack of volunteers

Friday, Aug. 7, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Cancer is an insidious disease that comes in many varieties, some offering greater chances of survival than others. Many patients go to great lengths for treatment, including experimental methods when more traditional medicinal practices don’t work.

Risky experimentation, though, could be reduced if cancer treatment researchers got more patients to participate in studies of new drugs or drug regimens.

As reported Monday by The New York Times, the mere 3 percent of adult cancer patients participating in studies is slowing progress in the long-running fight against the disease.

It is understandable why some patients do not want to participate. Volunteering for a study, only to find that the proposed treatment is not making much difference in the person’s condition, can be a deflating experience.

But there are other reasons for the low volunteer rate, the Times reported. Many doctors asked to recruit patients for studies are reluctant because they get nothing in return and can actually lose business by having patients go elsewhere for those trials.

Some studies are worthless because they may build up the resume of a doctor or clinic but do little to advance scientific knowledge. Mounds of paperwork and legal liability also put a damper on trials.

Many studies, though, have resulted in successful cancer treatments, with certain leukemia and breast cancer patients among the beneficiaries.

It would make sense for cancer researchers, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, patient advocates and other stakeholders to spend more time looking into the reasons why certain cancer studies work.

It could be that the researchers need to do a better job of screening participating patients. It could be that doctors need assurances that clinical trials will not put them out of business. It could be that pharmaceutical companies can be more honest about the limitations of their drugs. It could be that there is too much paperwork.

Cancer is a tough foe. Let’s not make it worse by failing to learn from successful studies.