Male Speaker: For Washington, DC resident Juanita Lyle, the idea of getting involved in a clinical trial to test new treatments for cancers isn't scary or intimidating. In fact, she has participated in breast cancer clinical trials for three decades.
Juanita Lyle: Well, I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and so it was brought to my attention by my doctor that they were doing a clinical trial.
Male Speaker: Clinical trials help researchers to better understand the complexities of cancer, while creating new ways to save lives and to provide a better quality of life for many. They're designed to test new treatments, or approaches to a particular condition against what is the commonly accepted practice.
Dr. Ellen Feigal: The purpose of the clinical trial is to really answer scientific questions, can we find better ways to more accurately diagnose to more earlier detect or to better treat patients with cancer or people at risk for cancer.
Dr. Gregory Curt: There is no treatment, there is no drug, there is no preventative, which was not tested and proven in the context of a clinical trial. Clinical trials are absolutely essential to finding tomorrow's cures.
Male Speaker: Through efforts of laboratory and clinical researchers, along with cancer patients themselves, the work has begun to yield results.
Dr. Andrew von Eshenbach: It's a story that goes back to 1971, at the time the 'National Cancer Act' was signed and at that point, we really didn't understand cancer.
Male Speaker: Dr Andrew von Eshenbach is the former Director of the National Cancer Institute. He has worked for decades in the quest to solve the mystery that is cancer.
Dr. Andrew von Eshenbach: Like most mysterious things, especially mysterious things that have the potential to take your life it was incredibly frightening.
Male Speaker: One major breakthrough in research came when scientists discovered cancer is not one disease, but possibly hundreds. New tools designed to improve the chances of fighting it successfully continue to be developed.
Dr. Ellen Feigal: The point of the clinical trials is to really take those discoveries, take those findings and try and translate it into interventions that will be effective for people and make an impact on their health.
Male Speaker: Researchers give full credit to clinical trial volunteers like Juanita for helping to make new discoveries in cancer treatment possible.
Juanita Lyle: My doctor, he talked about it because we talked about different choices and he asked me whether now you are to going to take a chance, and I said yes, I said, what more can one do, I said, to begin with cancer is a chance situation anyway.
Dr. Andrew von Eshenbach: We understand the cancer cell, we are beginning to understand how the cancer cell interacts with the person or the host. Our understanding of cancer is getting rid of the mystery.
Male Speaker: For many decades medical science has championed the cause of reducing the incidence of cancer, if not eliminating it completely. Today, opportunities exist to do just that, through ongoing scientific advances, new technologies and through clinical trials.
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