Cancer is a scary diagnosis that many patients throughout Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia face daily. Pikeville Medical Center (PMC) is dedicated to providing advanced cancer care, eliminating the need for patients to travel outside the region as much as possible.
The PMC Leonard Lawson Cancer Center is among a relatively small percentage of cancer centers approved to offer some of the newest treatments to qualifying cancer patients in the form of clinical trials. Simply put, clinical trials are research studies that involve people, and are the final step in the long process of developing a new drug. Patients whose cancer has not responded well to treatment and who meet certain qualifications are given the option to participate in a clinical trial, giving them access to new medications not yet available to the majority of patients.
“Cancer treatments are constantly changing, and we are always looking for new treatments that bring the best result to our patients and give them a fighting chance when other treatments have failed them,” said Leonard Lawson Cancer Center Director Vickie Justus. “Our research coordinator works hard on behalf of our cancer patients to get those who qualify into one of our trials. These are very exciting times for the Leonard Lawson Cancer Center and for many of our cancer patients.”
PMC is currently offering clinical trials to fight various types of breast cancer, metastatic pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
