ICAN, International Cancer Advocacy Network Network

The ICAN® mission is to assist and empower late-stage patients worldwide with cutting-edge information regarding anticancer drugs in clinical trials as well as physician referrals at the patient’s request based on the patient’s reported medical situation. ICAN® takes the position that there are key decision points in the battle for life and with the best available information, the cancer patient will be well-armed for the road ahead.

ICAN® assists the patient at such critical decision points in an effort to prolong life, taking into account quality of life and pain management issues. The ICAN® patient finalizes all treatment choices with his/her medical team. Primacy is placed upon avoiding lost time and easing the transition between a patient’s last set of diagnostic imaging (as well as lab tests) and the entry into either a clinical trial or a more creative treatment regimen.

Since its founding in 1996, ICAN® has been at the vanguard of personalized medicine and in the trenches with patients encouraging the use of specialty laboratory testing on blood and tissue samples as well as discussing molecular profiling results--before the term "personalized medicine" came into vogue.

ICAN® views each patient case as unique, and has never seen two patients with the same subtype of cancer with identical molecular profiling results since the subjects of cancer and tumor cell biology are so complex.