A large percentage of cancer patient survivors are excluded from clinical trials if they develop cancer again according to researchers from UT Southwestern’s Simmons Cancer Center.

“As the cancer survivor population continues to grow, understanding the nature and impact of a prior cancer is crucial to trial recruitment as well as to generalization of results,” said first author Dr. Caitlin Murphy, Assistant Professor of Clinical Sciences at UT Southwestern.

Concerns about trial outcomes that don’t take into account the efficacy of treatment on prior cancer survivors is a concern. Studies performed on patients with prior lung cancer have found no difference in survival rate than those without a prior history of cancer.

Future work by researchers will focus on individuals with , whether they have a prior history of cancer and if that affects the outcome of the current diagnosed cancer.

https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2017/cancer-trial-exclusions.html