The New York Times Well blog is running a series of articles from cancer researcher Dr. Peter Bach. But Dr. Bach is not offering his perspective as a physician or as a researcher, but as the husband of a wife facing breast cancer. It is a unique perspective: objective clinical knowledge and the raw emotion of seeing a loved one in poor health.
This week, Dr. Bach discusses the complexities and emotions of involvement in a clinical trial. It is one thing to objectively understand the reasons for a double-blind study, where a new treatment is compared to standard care. It is another to be the loved one of a patient hoping that your loved one gets the new drug and that it might be just a little better than the standard care. The article, and other that have explored why patients participate in clinical trials, demonstrates that it is perhaps impossible to be totally objective when discussing cancer research. Patients and physicians will always hope that they will be the exception.
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