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Clinical trials at UNC Lineberger

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center offers clinical trials for adults and children who have cancer or blood disorders.

For questions or more information about cancer clinical trials at UNC Lineberger, please call: (919) 966-4432 or 1-877-668-0683.

Search UNC Lineberger clinical trials

What are clinical trials?

Clinical trials help doctors find better ways to treat and prevent cancer. Whether the treatment is a vitamin, a cancer drug, a surgical procedure, a new way to detect disease, or a medical device, at some point it has to be tested on people through a clinical trial.

If you or a loved one has cancer, you might consider joining a clinical trial in order to try a new drug or treatment, or help doctors develop better treatments for the future.

Are clinical trials safe?

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires new drugs and other treatments to be tested in clinical trials before it approves the drug or treatment for everyone to use. Carefully conducted clinical trials are the fastest and safest way to find whether new drugs or treatments are both safe and effective.

Participants in clinical trials can play a more active role in their own health care, gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available, and help others by contributing to medical research.

Who can participate in a clinical trial?

Choosing to participate in a clinical trial is a personal decision. All clinical trials have guidelines about who can participate. Researchers use protocols with defined criteria to identify appropriate participants and maintain safety standards.

Find national clinical trials

In addition to the clinical trials developed at UNC Lineberger, there are national trials that you can learn about by visiting the National Cancer Institute website at or the National Institutes of Health website.

Where can I find more information on clinical trials?

The National Institutes of Health web page, Understanding Clinical Trials, offers more information that may answer many of your questions about clinical trials.

The National Cancer Institute has a brochure to help patients understand the details of Taking Part in Cancer Treatment Research Studies (PDF).