Stanford Cancer Institute's Clinical Trials Awareness Week

The Stanford Cancer Institute will hold its fifth annual Clinical Trials Awareness Week from April 18 - 22, 2016 in the Stanford Cancer Center Palo Alto located at 875 Blake Wilbur Drive, Stanford. This event is for patients, caregivers, and the community-at-large to learn more about cancer clinical trials and how they advance cancer care.

The American Cancer Society reported that the five-year relative survival rate improved to 68 percent for all cancers diagnosed from 2004 to 2010 (2015). Clinical trials improve cancer survival rates because they help advance new ways to treat cancer with novel therapies. To help these cutting-edge therapies become more quickly available as a standard of care for patients, more people need to partake in clinical research. Less than 5 percent of adult cancer patients participate in a clinical treatment trial (Meropol et al., 2015). Furthermore, Hawk’s et al. (2014) study of clinical trial enrollment in five National Cancer Institute–designated cancer centers revealed significantly lower percentages of racial/ethnic minority participation in treatment trials.

Stanford’s Clinical Trials Awareness Week will have a Cancer Clinical Trials Information Desk and Research Poster Exhibit Display available throughout the week. This year's program will feature oncology research talks by Stanford faculty members, Q&A research poster sessions with research staff and education for Spanish-speaking attendees. Participants will be eligible for a raffle prize drawing at the talks and giveaway item at the poster sessions.

The Stanford Cancer Institute offers more than 250 clinical trials and can assist patients with finding trials at Stanford. For more details about the program, please visit online or call 650.498.7061.