September 2007, Volume 4 Issue 4

In this issue:

That groundswell of interest gave Getz his first clue that there was a widespread hunger for knowledge about the field, and in 2002, Getz and co-author Deborah Borfitz published their first book, Informed Consent: A Guide to the Risks and Benefits of Volunteering for Clinical Trials. Over the next three years, Informed Consent distributed and sold 260,000 copies and became a valuable resource for some of the more than two million Americans who enroll in clinical trials each
year. Continued...

Cancer Survivor Goes for the Gold John Cleland of Indianapolis has run four marathons, but the race he is proudest to have won was against testicular cancer. Diagnosed in 1973 at 22 years of age, Cleland, then a newly married, Purdue University undergraduate, underwent surgical removal of his testicle and 53 lymph nodes. Three punishing rounds of chemotherapy followed.

But when Cleland’s cancer spread to his lungs, the optimism that had buoyed the Indiana native through nearly a year of treatment began to wane. He wondered what the future would hold. “At that point I weighed 105 pounds, I had no hair on my body, and the sores in my mouth were so bad I couldn’t swallow,” Cleland recalls.. Continued...

"Education before Participation" is Formula for Success When the San Diego chapter of the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA) needed someone to talk about the concerns of clinical trial volunteers, they knew who to call: Vical Inc. Executive Director of Oncology Clinical Operations Linda G. Strause, Ph.D.

With more than 20 years experience in human subject protection, many as chair of the Institutional Review Board for San Diego Hospice’s Center for Palliative Studies, Strause is an outspoken advocate for patient education as key to clinical research’s success. The CISCRP Advisory Board member was delighted to bring the organization’s message to colleagues in the field. Continued...