After NIH Staffing Cuts, Cancer Patient In Clinical Trial Worries She May Lose Crucial Time

“Clinical trials are a key part of delivery of care to patients. At a large academic center, such as all the large cancer centers, clinical trials are deeply ingrained into patient care – and without clinical trials, advances in delivery of care to patients will not be made. It’s only through clinical trials that high-quality data about new treatments and cures can be developed,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who has been following the changes at the NIH.

“I can also say that terminating multiyear research projects midway leads to a lot of waste of taxpayers’ dollars, because there has already been substantial investment in a project,” he said. “So if you end a study when it’s halfway done or three-quarters of the way done, then there’s no benefit to either science or to patients after there has already been substantial investment.” Read Full Article…