StemCell Therapy

Cat Wise:

Brittani Powell is now-cancer free, thanks to the clinical trial. But she was lucky. According to the Food and Drug Administration, only about 30 percent of clinical trial participants for cancer drugs come from minority groups. The rest are white.

In an era of precision medicine, when drugs are being developed for and tailored to specific segments of the population, diversity is essential, because some diseases and drugs impact racial groups in different ways.

George Ocampo has been part of the Lazarex push to reverse those numbers. He couldn't work during five grueling rounds of chemo for pancreatic cancer. A clinical trial for a new treatment, two hours from home, didn't seem like an option.

Lazarex has footed the bill for his trips to the University of California, San Francisco, the gas, tolls, parking, and hotel stays, while he participated in the trial. They also pay for airfare for those traveling longer distances.

Those seemingly small interventions have helped Ocampo and other patients access cutting-edge care they otherwise wouldn't have received.

Read the original here:
Why diversity in clinical trials is matter of life or death - PBS NewsHour

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