Heidi
As far as i know, and i'm not important enough to be let loose on clinical trials yet...🙂, you have to be recommended to a trial based by a consultant, maybe the one running the trial. He has to prove that you are a suitable candidate and might benefit from treatment. You can't just volutenteer at this stage, but you might be able to contact the doctor in charge of the trial and ask for Ross to be considered. The doctor will be trying to prove that the treatment he's testing will be better than the alternative.
The group of selected patients will be split into at least two groups, one who will have the active drug, and ones that will have the alternative treatment(s) or a placebo. You won't know what group you are in, and nor will the doctor. The only person who is likely to know is the pharmacist in charge of the trial or maybe the techs dispensing. But the idea is that if nobody knows, nobody can be swayed by money, sympathy or favouritism.
The drug will either be new or an old drug being used on a new illness (which sounds like what this is) but it will have been tested on people to make sure it's safe, and that the side effects aren't dangerous. Drugs are licensed for particular treatments for particular treatments called indications and it sounds like the doctor in charge is looking for a new license to treat diabetes with immunosuppresants.
As Phil has correctly explained, immunosupressants are usually given to people with transplants to stop them being rejected, but are also given to people with eczema, rheumatoid arthitis, leukaemia and non-hodkins lymphoma and some other cancers. Examples include Tacrolimus, Ciclosporin, Methotrexate and azathioprine. Phil's also correct in saying that the side effects can be nasty, they're designed to suppress your immune system so people talking them have to be very watchful for infections. The list of other side effects go on a bit too, but patients taking these sorts of drugs tend to be under careful supervison by medical staff and have blood tests regularly. Saying that, unfortunaltely, i've seen many children and young people take these drugs regularly, and in some cases, i'm sure, they've been incredibly helpful and indeed, have saved lives.
I've got no experience of hospital services in Bristol or Sheffield, and my knowledge of clinical trial is learnt from observation and being nosey🙂. I trained in the pharmacy at Great Ormond Street, but most hospitals are running a range of trials at any given time. Trials involving children and young people are particularly strictly observed and regulated. I think they have to explain any risks that they are aware of before anybody starts treatment, especially after the incidents in Northwick Park a few years ago (don't worry, that would have been at an ealier stage of the trial process to see if the drug was safe for use in healthy volunteers, if the drug has got to the stage of being offered to patients with a disease then it will have passed that and been declared safe, in this case it's probably been used in other patients for some time already).
If you've got any idea of what drug is involved or would like to know more, you can contact me and if i don't know, i'll ask somebody who does.🙂
Rachel
