Dr. Raju Vaddepally is passionate about cancer research. “I think the research is a compelling force to kind of bring in very positive changes, not only incremental changes, but also exponentially improve the patients' quality of life and survival.”

The Lee Health Cancer Institute has been doing research for years. Dr. Vaddepally wants to help take things to the next level. “And that level is not only by the volume and rolling the patients to the trials, but also bringing in some of the trials that actually really are cuttingedge, and we believe that's going to change the cancer game in some of these tumors.”

Historically less than 2% of cancer patients are enrolled in clinical trials. That’s a number Dr Vaddepally said he wants to see grow. “I really want to have every patient get equal opportunity, which we call equity in a sense, in terms of getting equal care and equal access to care. And access to care comes with not only research, but also advocacy and grassroots commitment to serve our patients.”

As we become more research focused, we network with similar likeminded thought leaders in the field. “If I'm specializing in lung cancer, I connect with all the peers who are specialized in lung cancer. We kind of speak the same language. We bring in trials that are going to meet our needs within the community,” said Dr. Vaddepally.

Helping drive the future of cancer care. You can learn more by searching for clinical trials on leehealth.org.


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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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