CANCER CLINICAL TRIALS & RESEARCH | FWCC Research

Bringing cutting edge technologies closer to patients in
North and Central Louisiana.

What are cancer clinical trials?

Cancer clinical trials, also called cancer research studies, test many types of treatments such as new drugs, new surgical techniques or radiation therapy, new combinations of treatments, or new methods.

The goal of the research is to find better ways to treat cancer.

Cancer clinical trials include research at four different phases. Each phase answers different questions about the new treatments. Almost every approved cancer treatment that patients receive today is the result of a clinical trial.

Feist-Weiller Cancer Center • Ochsner LSU Health – St Mary Medical Center • 
Ochsner LSU Health – Cancer Treatment Center • Ochsner LSU Health Monroe Medical Center

Why are cancer clinical trials important?

Clinical trials are the backbone of cancer research. If you volunteer to enroll in a trial, you are not only helping to improve cancer care – but the trial might also be the best option for you. It’s always up to you whether to take part in a clinical trial.

One potential benefit is that you may be among the first to get access to a promising new treatment. Even if you decide not to participate, the fact that Feist-Weiller provides treatment for patients in trials is a good reason to come here for care. We encourage you to talk to your provider about clinical trials. Whatever you decide, your Feist-Weiller team will ensure that you get the best care possible.

You can explore all studies that are currently enrolling participants at our four locations by clicking the link below. Please speak with your physician as we are frequently opening new clinical trials. Your oncology team is the best resource for this information.

Clinical trials at FWCC and affiliate sites include:

1. Clinical Trials which may focus on treatment, cancer prevention or cancer care delivery through the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport is one of the founding members of the NCORP as members of the Gulf South Minority Underserved NCORP. We currently have over 40 NCI trials available to our patients through Gulf South Clinical Trials Network (Gulf South CTN).
2. Pharmaceutical or industry-sponsored studies which are thoroughly reviewed by physicians for their scientific rigor, innovation, safety and efficacy.
3. Investigator-initiated trials which originate within our institution with our expert physicians and scientists serving as sponsor. Some of these projects can be classified as translational cancer research, also termed ‘bench-to-bedside', which aims to efficiently translate research findings from the laboratory into clinical practice for rapid impact on cancer treatment and outcomes.

Who conducts the Cancer Research Studies?

In addition to your physicians, several other personnel help to conduct these studies including:

• clinical research coordinators responsible for overseeing the daily operations of clinical trials and managing participant enrollment and data collection

• regulatory managers work with the Internal Review Board (IRB) to ensure compliance with regulations and ethical guidelines
• clinical research pharmacists
• oncology nurses

What is the TMIST Trial?

Currently our highest enrolling NCI trial is the Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial.

TMIST is a randomized breast screening trial that aims to help researchers learn about the best ways to find breast cancer in women who have no symptoms. The goals of TMIST are to measure and compare the rates of newly diagnosed breast cancer that meet certain criteria and determine if 3D mammography might help certain groups of women as opposed to 2D mammography.

TMIST is particularly important to the future of breast cancer screening because it will give doctors knowledge about how to move beyond our current “one size fits all” approach, where most women are screened the same way based on age-specific guidelines. This trial will help move towards a more personalized approach that customizes mammography for each woman based on her own genetics and individual risk factors for developing breast cancer.

The TMIST clinical trial opened in 2017 and closed to enrollment in December 2025 with over 108,000 participants, who are still being followed as part of the trial.

Feist-Weiller Cancer Center is one of 114 active TMIST clinical trial sites and has enrolled over 1700 participants, many of which were enrolled through the Partners in Wellness program that offers mobile mammography screening. FWCC is the only cancer center in the state and the Gulf South Minority Underserved NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) group, which also includes sites in Mississippi and Alabama, that offered the TMIST clinical trial to patients in rural communities in Louisiana.

FWCC’s goal is to eventually offer several different clinical trials to potential participants living in rural areas via the Partners in Wellness mobile screening vans.

What is Cellular Immunotherapy?

What if the cells that cancer affects could be trained to fight back? This is the core of cellular immunotherapy at Feist-Weiller Cancer Center.

• Cells are taken from your body and multiplied in a lab. Sometimes they are also re-engineered to help the cells better fight cancer.
• The boosted cells are then returned to your body. Now they are better able to spot cancer cells that were once hidden and attack them.
• Our cellular immunotherapy treatments include chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for leukemias and lymphomas.

CAR T-cell therapy is a game changer in the field of cellular immunotherapy.

This innovative therapy engineers a patient’s own T cells to zero in on enemy cancer cells. The rebooted T cells can even help the immune system “remember” these cancer cells, which may offer long-lasting protection against cancer returning — even after the treatment is completed. In addition to offering FDA-approved therapies, Feist-Weiller Cancer Center offers cellular immunotherapy clinical trials to individuals with different diseases. These are the clinical trials which include Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.