New Cancer Clinical Trials Search Tools Offer Hope
When Tom Marsilje’s cancer came back stronger in August 2013, he knew he would eventually have to turn to a clinical trial. These trials, which test the safety and efficacy of experimental new treatments compared with the standard of care, are not for every patient, because some types of cancer have good treatment options with strong outcomes. Marsilje’s initial search returned 1,200 results. “With my patient hat on, I had no idea where you’d start. I assure you, there are not 1,200 clinical trials [worth considering],” Marsilje says. “One of the first things I realized was that I was really lucky in my background. I don’t know how anyone without a scientific background would be able to do this. It’s so complicated.”
Marsilje—who took care of his mother before she passed away from pancreatic cancer and watched several other family members fight cancer—studied medicinal chemistry and became an oncology and drug discovery researcher at Novartis, working primarily on lung cancer. He helped design and synthesize a lung cancer drug. In and got a diagnosis of Stage III colorectal cancer (CRC). He had surgery two days later. The cancer caretaker turned cancer researcher was suddenly a cancer patient. A short time later, he would also become a cancer activist, contributing one big solution to the daunting challenge many patients face of finding a clinical trial that offers them real hope.
