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[SUE SCOTT] I was diagnosed on Halloween of 2011
with stage 1B2 cervical cancer — went through the standard course of treatment that was
prescribed, which I didn’t ask at the time but found out later works for 65 percent of
people with cervical cancer. So I was part of the 35 percent that it did not work for.
I was going to do some kind of trial, just so that I could be a part of research, because
things were looking so bad for me, and there wasn’t anything really — traditional treatment — for me.
I didn’t have much hope for survival — that
that would be one last good thing I could do. You know, it was a way to give of myself
in a way that could be positive for the next person who ended up where I was.
So that had meaning for me.
I think the clinical trial process was really
hard for my family, too, but they wouldn’t say that; they would say that I did the hard part.
Having a team of doctors come around on rotation
every — I guess it was once a week, but they also would stop in other times, too,
and just say, “Miss Scott, how are you feeling today?” And so, they just were really involved
and really did seem to care about not just seeing us as guinea pigs but really as people
who were reaching out with our, you know, arm out for our last hope.
Two months later, my tumors were all gone, not detectable on any scans.
For me it was really an empowering experience — not just that I had a good outcome, but
just being part of a group of people who are working so hard to try and find answers to
these terrible illnesses and feeling a part of that.
If people ask me, “Why consider a clinical trial?” I think, beyond just being part
of something that’s helping further science, it’s just about keeping that piece of hope
alive, to believe that there’s a possibility that something new could work, that there’s
some treatment out there that could have hope, and to hold onto that.