By Julie Carrico, MBA, CCRC
Remember when you were a kid, having a grand time running around, then took a fall and got the wind knocked out of you? That’s about the only way to describe the feeling we had last week after it was announced that large scale clinical trials for solanezumab (our site is participating in the Expedition 3 clinical trial of solanezumab) are being halted. According to study sponsor Eli Lilly, the clinical trials are being stopped because “patients treated with solanezumab did not experience a statistically significant slowing in cognitive decline compared to patients treated with placebo.”
Our next step was to regroup and contact the seven amazing study participants and their study partners to inform them of this development. Kim, who recently wrote a wonderful article about her work with these patients, made the calls. We expected emotional responses from the patients/partners when we informed them that the trial was being discontinued. What we didn’t expect was that each pair expressed concern for Kim: Was she ok? Would she have a job? After reassuring all the participants that she was fine, Kim explained there are other studies (we are working on two other Alzheimer’s disease studies) and began making arrangements for the final Expedition 3 study visits.
The results of the Expedition 3 clinical study were disappointing, to say the least. And although it might be tempting to chalk the experience up as a waste of time, I assure you it was not. First and foremost, the patients on study received the current standard-of-care treatment and then some. What I mean by this is that as a result of study participation, these patients received clinic visits for their Alzheimer’s disease much more frequently than is the current norm. Second, scientists have learned a lot about the disease from the clinical trial data for solanezumab, and all of this knowledge will be applied as other treatments are developed.
As one phone call to an Expedition 3 patient drew to a close, Kim asked the patient if she had any other questions and the patient said: “Thank you for taking care of me”. When Kim relayed this story to us, we took a moment to wipe our eyes, and then made our silent pledges to continue the fight to end Alzheimer’s disease. You see, failure is not an option.
The Clinical Research Center is currently seeking volunteer patients in two studies for those with mild Alzheimer’s disease, several Type 2 diabetes studies, and one study for those with very high triglyceride levels.
If you are interested in learning more about clinical trials, contact the Clinical Research Center at 541-766-2163, or send an email to research@corvallisclinic.com. And, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/corvallisclinicresearch.
– Julie Carrico, a Certified Clinical Research Coordinator, is Associate Coordinator of The Corvallis Clinic Clinical Research Center
