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Trialling cancer treatments for better health

23 December 2019

Blog
Cancer care
Oncologists at the St John of God Murdoch Oncology Clinical Trials Unit are passionate about finding new and better ways to ‘kick cancer’ in our community. Dr Kynan Feeney says research shows that patients who are in clinical trials often fare better than those who are not involved.

Clinical trials give patients access to new types of treatment so that we can see if they are better than existing treatments.

Patients receive a high level of care and are monitored closely to gauge their reaction to a new drug, to surgery or radiotherapy.

We also investigate the emotional and physical side effects of both diagnosis and treatment.

 

Patients are commonly worried they will be ‘guinea pigs’ for unproven drugs, but all drugs are investigated thoroughly before they are given to patients.

Experimental drugs are studies against ‘standard of care’, which is care patients receive outside of a trial, and are stringently reviewed by an ethics committee and the hospital to ensure patient welfare.

Patients are free to leave the trial at any time, but we find most feel motivated to help researchers develop new cancer treatments that will help others in the future.

You can find out more about our clinical trials at the Murdoch Oncology Clinical Trials Unit.

About the St John of God Murdoch Hospital Oncology Clinical Trials Unit

  • Opened in 2012
  •  Caregiver team includes three clinical trials co-ordinators, a research nurse and medical administrator
  •  Currently conducting 23 clinical trials
  •  Top recruiting site in Australia for the CHECKMATE 649 gastric cancer trial, and ASCENT colon cancer trial
  •  Third highest recruiting site globally for the ARTIST pancreatic cancer trial
  •  First site in WA to run an access program for melanoma patients to access Nivolumab, the latest and, to date, most effective immune therapy
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A/Prof Kynan Feeney is the Head of Department of Cancer Services at St John of God Murdoch Hospital and a member of the Medical Advisory Committee overseeing medical services at Murdoch.  His main clinical interests are in breast, gastrointestinal cancer and melanoma. He is also the principal investigator of clinical trials investigating new treatments spanning breast, melanoma, colon, gastric, esophageal, lung, bladder, pancreas and renal cancer. A/Prof Feeney is highly active in new immunotherapy treatment for different types of cancer. He is also active in research looking at exercise as a treatment of certain types of cancer. He is clinical mentor for final year medical students at Notre Dame University where he is adjunct professor.