DULUTH, Minn. - Rural Minnesotans who have cancer could get groundbreaking treatment closer to home if a proposal before the Minnesota Legislature becomes law.
So says Dr. Brooks Jackson, dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was in Duluth on Thursday to participate in a presentation on rural and Native American health care to the U of M's Board of Regents, whose monthly meeting is underway at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
The plan, which would cost $8 million annually, would create a cancer clinical trial network, Jackson said in an interview. It would mean patients who currently travel to the Twin Cities, Rochester or Duluth to participate in clinical trials might be able to receive the experimental treatment from their own doctors in the facility where they usually receive health care, with the treatment coordinated by specialists from the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Center.
It's difficult if not impossible for many of those patients to take part in clinical trials now, he said.
"Literally about 56 percent of Minnesotans do not live within 30 miles or 40 miles of a clinical cancer trial venue," Jackson said. "To people that have cancer, driving to get their treatment is always an issue. They don't feel well. It's more difficult for their families to go with them if it's far away."
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At the same time, the rate of cancer is higher in Greater Minnesota than it is in the metro, he said.
For those patients, access to clinical trials could make the difference between life and death, Jackson said. "These new drugs or devices ... are only available through clinical trials (and) may be life-saving."
The treatment that stopped the spread of advanced melanoma to former President Jimmy Carter's brain came in a clinical trial, Jackson pointed out.
Practice guidelines for oncology say the best treatment for any cancer patient is a clinical trial, said Dr. Bret Friday, director of oncology research for Essentia Health, in an interview earlier this year.
That's true not just because the newest drugs and devices are available, Jackson said on Thursday. "You're just monitored better," he said. "The quality of care is significantly better when you're in a clinical trial."
The cancer clinical trial network would not only give more patients access to clinical trials, Jackson said, but the increased number of patients also would give the Masonic Cancer Center greater access to experimental drugs and devices.
"The larger your clinical trial network, you are more likely for a pharmaceutical company or medical device company to work with you, because they're looking for somebody who can enroll a large number of patients," he said.
Even though the Twin Cities is the home to 400 medical device companies, those companies may turn to places with larger patient populations for clinical tests, Jackson said.
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The proposal's goal is to have no Minnesotan living farther than 30 miles from a cancer clinical trial site, said Brian Lucas, a spokesman for the university's Academic Health Center, in an email. They project having more than 45 clinical trials underway statewide by the end of the second year, he wrote.
The proposal is included in university President Eric Kaler's MnDRIVE initiative for research funding, Jackson said. The clinical trial portion of the initiative was included in Gov. Mark Dayton's budget and has support in both houses of the Legislature, he added.
Jackson mentioned the clinical trial proposal in his report during the work session with the regents on Thursday afternoon.
He was joined by the leaders of the various divisions within the university's Academic Health Center, including Dr. Paula Termuhlen, dean of the medical school's Duluth campus; and Randall Seifert, senior associate dean of the College of Pharmacy on the Duluth campus.
The regents' full board meeting will take place today at UMD.
