At all times, a broad array of research is taking place in cancer at Jefferson. Staff members at all levels and disciplines are involved in these investigations, which are aimed at improving prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment for these cancers.

Research is taking place across departments, divisions, centers, programs, clinics, and practice offices. Studies are generally categorized as of one of two kinds:

• basic research. This research looks at essential functions and effects in the biological systems that underlie health and disease. The research is not targeted to answering a particular question of medical treatment but at unraveling molecular and biological systems that make up the human organism and the factors that affect it. Basic research looks at essential building blocks and processes that are affected by medical conditions, as well as the nature of the interventions that influence those conditions. Basic scientists, such a biochemists, cell biologists, genomicists, conduct this research, which seeks to expand the broader pool of knowledge from which applied research draws.
  
  
• clinical or applied research. This research tackles specific challenges in preventing, understanding, detecting, diagnosing, treating, and following disease states. It seeks to answer questions that can be applied to medical care. Clinical care providers, such as doctors, nurses, and therapists conduct this type of research. It is often led by physician-scientists, clinical nurse specialists, and other practitioners who divide their time between standard patients care and experimental care or data collection for purposes of finding ways to improve patient outcomes.

Jefferson prides itself on joining the worlds of basic and clinical research, in the sense of placing special emphasis on moving new lab discoveries to the bedside in a form that can benefit patients, as soon as possible. This entails special collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians.

Clinical research may test new drugs, surgical procedures, imaging techniques, prevention strategies, or virtually any aspect of care. It may be comparing current methods of care to one another or to new approaches.

Clinical trials are organized studies of an innovative technique with a group of patients. These trials typically take place at a number of medical centers simultaneously, sometimes on a national scale. For years, Jefferson has helped to coordinate such trials at a large group of area medical centers, through the Jefferson Cancer Network.

Jefferson is normally participating in hundreds of clinical trials at any one time, of which a substantial group focus on breast cancer. These trials give breast cancer patients access to the latest experimental treatments. The trials are organized at Jefferson, and sometimes led nationally, through the Kimmel Cancer Center.

Clinical trials of new drugs fall into Phase I (checking for adverse reactions in a small group of patients), Phase II (looking for evidence of beneficial effects and tolerance in a medium-sized group of patients), and Phase III trials (seeking to prove effectives and safety in a large group of patients). You can review trail objectives, subject eligibility, and treatment protocols at the listing of breast cancer clinical trials available at the Kimmel Cancer Center.

Rest assured that before any trial can accept patients, an ethics committee has to approve its design and agreed that the trial is in the interest of patients. Your healthcare provider at Jefferson’s Breast Care Center may ask you if you would like to take part in a clinical trial. Your provider will discuss the experimental care with you so that you have an understanding of the trial and of what your participation in it means. You can elect not to participate, or you can withdraw from the trial at any point. You will then return to receiving the best standard (nonexperimental) care available.