Do physicians stand in the way of patient participation in clinical trials?

We've talked a bit about things that keep patients from choosing to participate in cancer clinical trials, but what about their doctors?  Well, there are barriers on the physician side to.  In an article recently published in Oncology Times, I review some of these barriers and offer a bit of a call to arms to the oncology community. 

According to the NCI, physician barriers include: lack of awareness of appropriate clinical trials, unwillingness to “lose control” of a patient’s care, belief that standard therapy is best, belief that referring and/or participating in a clinical trial adds an administrative burden, and concerns about the person’s care or how the person will react to the suggestion of clinical trial participation.  To learn more about it, take a look at the article in Oncology Times.

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(c) 2012 Tom Beer and Larry Axmaker