You will be aware that GCUK are relentless in our focus to improve treatments and outcomes for all GIST Cancer patients and it is this focus that drives each of our initiatives and is what makes our partnership with RareCan so important.
Launched in 2019 RareCan is growing its list of rare cancer patients who want to help with research into their cancer; which in our case is GIST & PAWS-GIST cancer. RareCan’s membership is growing, but they need more members and being a member of RareCan will enable you to say you are willing to participate in research.
Having a large number of PAWS-GIST and GIST Cancer patients in one place, who wish to be made aware of research that could help them, puts patients in a stronger position to find treatments. Saying: “I am here and ready to participate” will speed up the time it takes for researchers and drug companies to get enough patients recruited for their trials.
They will be able to start their research much more quickly than they would if they had to approach each individual NHS trust to find the patients themselves. So often, clinical trials either do not happen, or fail in the case of rare cancer, because it is not possible to recruit sufficient numbers of patients and as a result effective treatments are not found.
The benefit of RareCan is that you control what information is shared with the researchers. If you choose not to participate, that’s absolutely fine, not all research projects will suit everyone. Be assured that your data will be safe and secure. The great news is that RareCan will facilitate even more research into rare cancers which is important to all of us.
You can become a member of RareCan by joining via their website: www.rarecan.com.
This leaflet provides a summary and there are short videos available on the RareCan website & youtube channel and on social media if you wanted to take a look.
Our PAWS-GIST patient director also joined the RareCan team in a couple of the videos to raise awareness of our rare PAWS-GIST cancer patients needs!
It’s a fantastic partnership, and we look forward to creating a significant pool of GIST and PAWS-GIST cancer patients to attract more interest from researchers and companies developing drugs to address our treatment needs.
Please help us to attract more research and treatments for GIST and PAWS-GIST cancer patients www.rarecan.com.