Notifying Participants of Clinical Trial Results To the Editor: In their Commentary, Drs Partridge and Winer1 discuss barriers to the sharing of results with patients who participate in clinical trials. In the more than 25 years I have entered patients in government-sponsored clinical trials, no principal investigator has ever forwarded me results of the clinical trials in which I entered my patients, except when I was included as an author. Participants in clinical trials do not get study results because their physicians do not receive them either. Phillip Periman, MD The Don and Sybil Harrington Cancer Center Amarillo, Tex 1. Partridge AH, Winer EP. Informing clinical trial participants about study results. JAMA. 2002;288:363-365. FULL TEXT | PDF | MEDLINE In Reply: As Dr Periman points out, physicians who enroll patients in clinical trials often do not learn about results until they are presented or published. Furthermore, in some cases, results are never reported at a meeting or published in a journal. If a system of routinely offering results of studies to participants in clinical trials is to be instituted, it will be critical to notify their physicians as well. Ideally, physicians would be notified in advance, allowing them time to clarify results for themselves to provide effective education and counseling for their patients. Ann Partridge, MD, MPH Eric Winer, MD Department of Adult Oncology Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Boston, Mass JAMA, Vol 288 No 16, Oct 23/30, 2002 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.