WhatNewswise — The ninth annual Helping to Enhance Research in Oncology event will honor those who take part in cancer clinical trials. The event will also raise awareness for the importance of cancer clinical trials and will offer education sessions about clinical trials that are free and open to the public. The New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance is sponsoring the event.

WhyClinical trials are research studies in people designed to learn more about how to diagnose, treat and prevent cancer. Under strict oversight to protect the people who join them, clinical trials gather scientific data on the effects of new drugs and treatments. These data guide further development and may also help to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Once a cancer drug or treatment receives FDA approval, it can become part of the standard care for that type of cancer.

The path to FDA approval usually takes more than 10 years and costs more than $ 2.5 billion, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Those years and expense cover initially discovering the drug or treatment, developing it for use in animals and people, testing in animals and, finally, testing in people. Testing in people is conducted through four stages of clinical trials plus post-approval studies, in many cases. So, people taking part in clinical trials may get the new drug or treatment years before the FDA approves it.

People who take part in cancer clinical trials take risks. They may or may not get the new drug or treatment. If they do get the new drug or treatment, it may not work better than the current standard care. And, they may get side effects that the scientists and doctors do not expect or the side effects may be worse than the current drugs or treatments.

To honor the people who take part in clinical trials, and therefore help to improve future cancer care, the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance holds an annual event. This year’s event will offer public information sessions about clinical trials.

WhenSaturday, October 15, 2016

Full program runs from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Best-selling author, headlining comic and stage-IV cancer survivor Scott Burton will give the keynote address.

The two educational sessions are free and open to the public. They run from 9:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.

Please register by Monday, October 3, 2016 by calling 505-206-1225

WhereHotel Albuquerque at Old Town800 Rio Grand Boulevard NWAlbuquerque, NM 87104

InterviewsTeresa L. Stewart, MS, CRCP

New Mexico Cancer Care AllianceExecutive Director

The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer CenterDirector, Clinical Research Office andNew Mexico NCORP Minority/Underserved, Administrator

ContactDorothy Hornbeck, JKPR, 505-340-5929, [email protected]


About the UNM Comprehensive Cancer CenterThe University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center is the Official Cancer Center of New Mexico and the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center in a 500-mile radius. One of the premier cancer centers nationwide, the UNM CCC has more than 125 board-certified oncology physicians, forming New Mexico’s largest cancer care team. It treats about 60 percent of adults and virtually all the children in New Mexico diagnosed with cancer — more than 10,000 people— from every county in the state in more than 135,000 clinic visits each year. Through its partnership with the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance, an “exemplary national model for cancer health care delivery,” the UNM CCC offers access to more than 175 clinical trials to New Mexicans in every part of the state. Annual research funding of almost $60 million supports the UNM CCC’s 130 cancer scientists. Working with partners at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, and New Mexico State University, they have developed new diagnostics and drugs for leukemia, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, liver and pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, and melanoma. Learn more at www.cancer.unm.edu.