JENCC’s History of Advancing Cancer Care Through Clinical Trials

Cancer care continually changes with new drugs and new combinations which is what clinical trials are all about. Patients who are involved with clinical trials get the best available care and studies have shown that patients tend to survive longer when involved in a clinical trial.

The June E. Nylen Cancer Center’s (JENCC) very own Dr. Donald Wender has a lot of experience with clinical trials and says, “It has been very rewarding to be involved in practice-changing studies through the years.”

Dr. Wender was involved in some of the first studies and very early clinical research trials for colon, breast, and lung cancer. He was actually one of the first medical oncologists to use new drugs with ovarian and renal cancers. He has been on the forefront of advancing cancer treatments and clinical research. Dr. Wender has around 50 research publications.

According to Dr. Wender, clinical research and clinical trials are important to advance clinical treatment and offer new treatments to our patients.

Our physicians and staff have a history of research in medicine. Sioux City has been in affiliation with the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) for 30 years. The NCCTG is an international clinical research group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. It consists of a network of cancer specialists, community clinics, hospitals, and medical centers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Sioux City also had the first positive study of adjuvant colon studies, the first trial with oxaliplatin in colon cancer, the first trial of adjuvant Herceptin, and multiple cancer control trials.

JENCC is part of an alliance for cancer clinical trials and we work with Sanford in a community-based cancer research organization.

Along with his 50 research publications, Dr. Wender also has several protocols he thinks we can use here at JENCC. His goal is to continue to make JENCC the highest quality cancer center possible.

For more information on research and clinical trials at JENCC, go HERE.