Sally

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Sally was first diagnosed with invasive breast cancer after a routine mammogram in her late 40s. Learn more about Sally’s experiences with breast cancer here. Shortly after completing surgery and chemotherapy, Sally decided to participate in a clinical trial. Being a nurse and trained patient advocate, Sally thought she would be “much more involved in the decision making” but was surprised that she “couldn’t deal” with the decisions, which was “really unlike” her. Sally asked her husband to “research this clinical trial and tell me what you think.” Per her husband: “if you get A or B, that’s good, but if you get C, I don’t think we should do that.” From his research, it appeared C meant Sally would not get “one of the top three drugs that they always give women.” When they pulled the third option, Sally immediately said “OK, now we’re backing out” because she knew she could decide to do so “at any time.” Sally oncologist urged her to reconsider, feeling it was “a really good option” for her. Sally said, “what can I do but trust you?” And she did it.
Sally’s clinical trial experience lasted four rounds. She took two drugs at once and “hit it really hard right away” which was “intense.” Looking back, Sally remembers it as an “interesting” time especially around the decision-making. She now gets why people “can’t make any decisions” during treatment because “you can’t function” and are often “not in an emotional state” to make decisions. Sally has heard about other studies since, and thought “I could be in this study. Why don’t I know about this…?” From her experience, Sally says there’s a “huge disconnect” when it comes to helping patients find out about trials and with providers being “just too busy” she came to realize “you really need to be on top of things if you want to know about the latest.”