Maybe They Need to Make It More Glamorous

Clinical trials in the US are suffering from a lack of patients, says the Los Angeles Times. Americans are not enrolling in clinical trials -- fewer than 5 percent of cancer patients enter clinical trials -- and this is partly due to patients not understanding that they will receive the standard of care, not a placebo, or receive standard care plus the experimental treatment. Some researchers are trying to boost enrollment by backing legislation to require insurance companies to pay for care during a clinical trial and by involving the patient in the process by including a patient advocate on the steering committee and briefing the patients on the study's outcome.