A Patient's Perspective: My experience as an I-SPY 2 patient.

A major benefit of participating in the trial was the extra monitoring during the chemotherapy portion of the trial. I had direct evidence that the chemotherapy was effective through MRI monitoring at different stages. This was a big positive for me because it gave me extra hope that the chemotherapy was doing its job. In addition, because participation in the clinical trial is extremely valuable, the care team worked closely with me to schedule appointments so that I could maintain my job and family responsibilities.

Monitoring the response of the tumor to chemotherapy provides useful data for the trial’s researchers. If they can see when and how the tumor changes in response to the treatment, they can better learn which drugs are effective and also which drugs do not contribute to a positive outcome (but probably do contribute to nasty side effects). Better chemotherapy will kill cancer cells and leave healthy cells healthy, and that’s what we all want. I believe participation in clinical trials leads to advances in cancer treatment.