Mesothelioma is an insidious form of cancer because of the fact it is often discovered so late that treatment options are simply non-existent. For many people, the only option is to consider clinical trials. The question is whether this is a good option.
What are clinical trials? They are testing periods for new drugs or procedures that may eventually prove effective and be approved by the FDA as a treatment for something. Put another way, they are the process of testing whether a drug or procedure does what it is intended to do. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t.
Mesothelioma is a brutally difficult cancer to deal with for a unique reason. The problematic characteristic is it is very hard to find until it is too late for the patient. A person can have the cancer for 10, 20 or 30 years during which it can be treated, but still die of it because it went undetected. Given this problem, there are many different clinical trials going on all the time devoted to Mesothelioma treatments. For example, one related to the Mesomark, which is a promising new blood test that can lead to early detection.
Is it safe to take part in clinical trials? Generally, the answer is that it is safe to do so. A drug company does not just produce a drug and then start testing it on people. It must undergo testing and vetting processes before that happens. Still, clinical trials are undisputedly a form of experiment. The researchers think the drug or procedure being tested will work, but aren’t sure. This is, after all, why they have not been approved as of yet. The downside is usually just ineffectiveness, but side effects and rarely even death can occur.
