Clinical trials are a vital part of the development of treatment in all cancers, including breast cancer, where clinical trials over the years have resulted in new drugs that prolong life and prevent cancer from spreading. Clinical trials are studies of new medications or treatments in humans before they are approved for widespread use.
As co-director of the Women's Cancer Developmental Therapeutic Program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, Jennifer Diamond, MD, helps oversee the introduction of new drugs for patients with breast and gynecological cancers. She also co-leads the Phase One, Expansion, and Molecular Studies (POEMS) research group, which is focused on early-phase clinical trials of new cancer drugs in patients with advanced cancer, including metastatic breast cancer.
We asked Diamond about how clinical trials work in breast cancer and why they’re important.