Research and Clinical Trials

• In the News: Per the NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network), Clinical Practice Guides, "The NCCN believes that the best management for any patient with cancer is in a clinical trial. Participation in clinical trials is especially encouraged." 

Main Line Health Clinical Trials Clinical trials are currently taking place through the Main Line Health CCOP: Cancer Clinical Trials Program.

A clinical trial is a research study designed to answer specific questions about ways to prevent, detect, diagnose and/or treat an illness. Participants may include either healthy individuals or those with a disease, depending upon the nature of the study.

Participation in a clinical trial is voluntary. Following a thorough explanation of the risks and benefits of the study, informed consent is obtained in writing. Even so, a participant in a clinical trial may withdraw from the study at any time without prejudicing his or her subsequent medical care in any way. 

Cancer clinical trials allow physicians to evaluate new approaches to cancer treatment. This may involve surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biologic therapy or a combination of these modalities. Methods of prevention, detection and diagnosis also may be the subject of a trial.

Main Line Health's CCOP: Cancer Clinical Trials Program

More than 80 percent of patients with cancer are diagnosed and treated in their local communities. In 1983 the National Cancer Institute began the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) so that these individuals could benefit from the latest developments in cancer research.

Community hospitals throughout the country compete for CCOP federally funded awards. Since 1994 the Cancer Center of Paoli Hospital in the Philadelphia suburbs has been part of the Main Line Health CCOP (along with the cancer programs at Bryn Mawr and Lankenau Medical Centers). The Main Line Health CCOP serves nearly one million people in an area extending from northwest Philadelphia into Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties. Through the CCOP, area residents have access to nationally recognized cancer prevention and cancer treatment clinical trials right in their own community.

The Main Line Health CCOP is also affiliated with seven nationally and internationally known research organizations:

• American College of Surgeons Oncology Group
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group
• Gynecologic Oncology Group
• M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas
• National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project
• Radiation Therapy Oncology Group
• Wake Forest University Comprehensive Cancer Center CCOP Research Base

Through these organizations, the Main Line Health CCOP offers innovative cancer prevention trials as well as state-of-the-art cancer treatment trials.

Although clinical research trials have provided the answers to many questions about how to treat and/or prevent cancer, only two to three percent of all adult cancer patients take part in clinical trials. With clinical trials available to the community through the CCOPs, community members have the opportunity to join the war against cancer. Through their increased willingness to participate in clinical research trials, critical questions about cancer will be answered.

Current Clinical Trials

For a list of current Main Line Health clinical trials, click here.