“Comorbidities” are other medical or health conditions you have in addition to cancer, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Many clinical trials exclude people with certain health conditions other than the condition being studied in the trial. If you have another health condition and are considering participating in a MBC clinical trial, you can contact the research site to ask if you can participate.
Efforts are underway to safely include people with comorbidities in cancer clinical trials so that trials represent all people, with and without comorbidities, who will eventually receive the drugs studied in the trials.
Click the links below to learn more about how comorbidities affect clinical trial participation and efforts to include more people with comorbidities in cancer clinical trials.
Comorbidities and Cancer Clinical Trials
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: Comorbidities Prevent Clinical Trial Participation
- Targeted Oncology: Are Comorbidities Excluding Otherwise Eligible People From Clinical Trial Enrollment?
- Trial Spark: What is a Comorbidity and How Could Having One Impact Clinical Trial Participation?
Increasing Participation of People with Comorbidities in Cancer Clinical Trials
- American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO): ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research Recommend Expanding Patient Access to Cancer Clinical Trials by Further Broadening Eligibility Criteria
- ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research (Journal Article): Recommendations of ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research for Increasing Trial Participation by People with Comorbidities
MBC Clinical Trials on Metastatic Trial Search
- Trials for Heart Problems
- Trials for Diabetes/High Blood Sugar
- Trials for Obesity/High BMI
- Trials for Fatigue
- Trials for Pain
- Trials for Cognitive Problems
- Trials for Anxiety
- Trials for Depression
Last Modified on September 26, 2023