Rob Lowe makes case for clinical trials

Las Vegas - Rob Lowe brought his passion, and his co-star came to the stage with lived experience.

Rob Lowe appeared at HLTH with Alicia Dellario, a cancer survivor, to talk about the importance of improving participation in clinical research trials. Jacob Van Naarden of Eli Lilly and Company moderated the discussion.

The veteran actor appeared at the HLTH conference to talk about his push for more people to talk part in clinical research trials. Lowe, a familiar screen presence for over 40 years, has been a longtime advocate for cancer research. He shared the stage with Alicia Dellario, an ovarian cancer survivor who has also spoken about the need for more people to join research trials.

Lowe is partnering with Eli Lilly and Company to encourage more participation in clinical research. Jacob Van Naarden, executive vice president and president of Lilly Oncology, led a lively discussion with the star and the survivor during the HLTH Conference Sunday.

Only 7% of cancer patients take part in clinical trials, Van Naarden said.

Lowe recounted his beloved grandmother being diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1970s, and her participation in clinical trials. His mother also was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My family has been deeply touched by cancer,” Lowe said.

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He recalled when his grandmother entered a research trial. “The clinical care that she got in her initial clinical trial has since become the standard of care in breast cancer. So, I've seen what the advantages of that are,” he said.

Dellario was diagnosed w/late-stage metastatic ovarian cancer in 2014 and has since had the disease recur four times. She waited years to get into a clinical trial, and when she was finally able to participate, she said, “I was over the moon.”

She spent more than four and a half years in a trial, and she said she appreciated the great care she received. As opposed to earlier treatments, she was able to keep her hair and enjoy herself more. “I was truly able to live my life,” she said.

Dellario also said that her experience went beyond like feeling that she was just a research subject.

“I did not at all feel like a guinea pig,” she said, adding, “It was the best experience I’ve had from a treatment perspective.”

Lowe and Dellario both said that one approach that could help getting more people to consider enrolling in clinical trials would be focusing more on how it would help the patients themselves and focusing a bit less on the benefits of helping others.

“I think that there is a notion that there's sort of an altruistic element to participating, which, by the way, is great. Obviously, that's fantastic. But at the end of the day, it should be about the patient’s health,” Lowe said.

Having watched his family go through their cancer battles, Lowe said if he ever faced a similar diagnosis, “I’d be asking immediately what there is that I could participate in.”

Both Lowe and Dellario also talked about the importance of patients speaking up for themselves.

“It’s up to you to show up for yourself,” Lowe said. “And, you know, I understand a lot of people can't do it, don't have the capacity, physically, mentally, whatever, and hopefully they have someone, a caregiver in their life, that can be there to take the notes, to ask questions, to help them with the follow-ups. But I think the notion that someone's going to do it for you needs to be wiped out.”

Dellario has spoken to other groups about participating in clinical trials and she reminds patients that they know their bodies better than anyone else. And she said she left two other oncologists because they weren’t listening to her.

A little over a year ago, Dellario found out her cancer had returned. She said she knew that something had been wrong, even though earlier scans were clear. Still, her new oncologist ordered a live scan.

“He sat with the radiologist and really dug into where I was saying I felt pain,” she said. “Sure enough, it was the size of a hazelnut. But they found it because he listened to me.”

Dellario said she resumed chemotherapy and that it’s going well. She said she hopes at some point, she can enter another clinical trial, but she remains optimistic for the future.

“I know there will be something more for me,” she said.

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