(Danville, CA, Thursday, April 16, 2020) –  As our nation addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to develop a vaccine, it has become abundantly clear how important clinical trials are.

Whether fighting a deadly virus or fighting cancer and needing a clinical trial as the only chance to live, imagine the compounding challenge of finally finding a suitable trial, but being unable to afford to get to that treatment.

A staggering 95 percent of qualified patients do not participate in cancer clinical trials that could potentially save their lives – mostly due to the expense of repeated travel to trial locations.

More than 50 percent of cancer clinical trials fail due to a lack of patient participation.

National Minority Cancer Awareness Week is from April 11 to 17, 2020. According to statistics from the National Cancer Institute, minority groups in the U.S. are more likely to be diagnosed with and die from various types of cancers than white people.

With the support of Lazarex Cancer Foundation– both financially and through connecting patients to cancer clinical trials – participants obtain access to life-saving treatments, trials enroll more patients, the completed trials lead to successful studies, and more FDA cutting-edge cancer treatments are approved for all cancer patients.

Since established in 2006, Lazarex has helped fund more than 5,500 patients in cancer clinical trials.

Lazarex Cancer Foundation is the only organization in the United States that helps patients find FDA clinical trials and reimburses them for the out-of-pocket travel costs—air fare, hotel costs, parking, cab fare, rental car, and gas for the patient and a companion—involved in getting to those clinical trials.

Motivated by their own experience seeking a life-saving clinical trial for a loved one, Lazarex was founded in 2006 by Dana Dornsife to help patients who have failed standard care find and travel to FDA clinical trials.