Practice speeds use of early-stage cancer drugs

A pair of cancer specialists in Arizona are developing what some say is the next, best model for delivering new cancer drugs to patients. While university researchers are aware of--and have access to--new drugs, they can wait months or more for their institutions to grant permission for human drug studies. But things are different for Scottsdale physicians Michael Gordon and David Mendelson. They specialize in running early-phase FDA research trials in their private practice, focusing largely on melanomas and kidney cancer. Roughly 80 to 90 percent of the patients in their practice, Premiere Oncology, use trial drugs. The practice runs 30 to 35 studies at a time, seeing eight to 12 patients per year on each study. The practice gets a tidy $12,000 to $25,000 for each patient for each patient from sponsors, which are typically drug companies.

Find out more about Premiere Oncology:
- read this article in The Arizona Republic

Related Article:
Draft proposals open path to experimental drugs. Report