Shaping the Future of Cancer Care

For many years, Swedish Cancer Institute (SCI) has participated in clinical trials that evaluate new approaches to diagnosing and treating cancer, including testing new devices and medications.

For example:

• Through clinical trials, SCI’s medical oncologists are able to offer patients drugs that are not available locally, as well as some that are not even available nationally.
• SCI was a leader in testing many drugs that are now considered the standard of care, including Taxol, Herceptin, Avastin, Cetuximab and Oxaliplatin.
• Research at The Centers for Advanced Targeted Radiation Therapy at Swedish and the Swedish Radiosurgery Center provides additional treatment options that are not widely available.
• Numerous clinical trials at SCI assess the value of combining treatments (surgery, radiation therapy, radiology and chemotherapy) to improve outcomes and enhance quality of life.
• SCI is one of a few programs selected to test a minimally invasive diagnostic screening for early detection of lung cancer, and one of the first in the region to evaluate the use of low-dose CT scans to detect lung cancer in high-risk individuals.

An Important Step Toward Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs

There are many steps in the research process. A clinical trial is a critical step in developing new technologies or medications and determining whether they will be made available to the general public. A clinical trial is also a proven method of testing innovative approaches to preventing, diagnosing or treating a particular disease. Some clinical trials look at combinations of treatments to determine if a new way of delivering those treatments will produce better results. Clinical trials often lead to standards of care that benefit many patients.