Should you participate in a clinical trial if you have cancer? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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People with cancer who enroll in clinical trials do better. That wisdom appears to have been dashed with results of a new study showing no survival benefit or any other positive outcome related to clinical trial participation. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson looks at the study.

Nelson: They did some kind of meta analysis and looked if you received the drug and you received the same drug in a clinical trial you did about the same. The thought is that people who enroll in clinical trials are generally younger and somewhat healthier despite having cancer. You know more likely to participate in the trials and there are other things that I'm not sure that they have completely accounted for which is there's a striking differential. I think in the propensity to make an accurate diagnosis and stage which is required for participation in a clinical trial.    :31

Nelson says this study only examined one clinical trial scenario and there are many other types of trials. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.