ABC News has a story today on clinical trials - and what motivates people to participate:
"My reasoning was it could help me as well as other women," [Haralee Weintraub, an Oregon cancer patient who enrolled in a drug trial] said.
Weintraub's motives are common among clinical trial participants, said Dr. Susan Love, president of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Pacific Palisades, Calif., that promotes and funds breast cancer research.
"I think, in general, the people who participate are altruistic," Love said, adding that she thinks women with breast cancer are particularly generous. "If they can help someone else, they're willing to do it."
The article goes on to discuss researchers' struggles to get enough people to participate and things that may be keeping patients from signing up - including a lack of knowledge of studies. It notes that several sites - such as clinicaltrials.gov and cancer.gov - have information about ongoing trials.
Previously: Not enough cancer doctors refer patients to clinical trials
