Resources for Patients

Research can change the way cancer is treated. Clinical trials can help find new, possibly life-saving treatments.

Most of the life-saving treatments available today were found through clinical trials.

During your treatment for cancer, you may have the option to participate in clinical trials and change the way cancer is treated. The new treatment may one day help other people who are diagnosed with cancer.

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.

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.

Sometimes patients worry that participating in a trial means that they may not receive cancer treatment. It’s important to know that in many cancer clinical trials, the new or experimental treatment is compared to the current, standard treatment. Placebos are rarely used in cancer clinical trials.

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.