Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are used to research new ways of treating people with disease. After a new medicine goes through many tests – both in the lab and on animals – it is tested on patients with cancer who volunteer to take part in a clinical trial. The trial helps doctors to decide whether a medicine or regimen of treatment is safe and effective. It also helps to determine the correct dosage patients should receive.

Each clinical trial follows a protocol; which is the research plan that trial is based upon. The protocol is carefully designed to safeguard the health of the participants as well as answer specific research questions. It also describes what types of people may participate in the trial; the schedule of tests, procedures, medications, and dosages; and the length of the study. While in a clinical trial, participants following a protocol are seen regularly by the research staff to monitor their health and to determine the safety and effectiveness of their treatment.

Cancer trials are run differently than other clinical trials. In other types of trials, patients taking new medicines are compared with patients who receive no medicine at all (called a placebo or “inactive pill”). It would not be ethical to give people with cancer an inactive medication. So, cancer trials compare patients receiving a current medicine with patients receiving the new medicine. Doctors hope that the trial will reveal that the new medicine works better than the current one.

There are some advantages to taking part in a clinical trial. Patients who do may receive the newest medicines available. Also, patients are monitored very closely throughout the trial, so their overall health often benefits. Finally, patients who take part in a clinical trial may not have to pay for the medicine they receive. The company or organization that sponsors the trial will usually provide the medicine at no charge, and will pay for extra testing and doctor visits required by the study protocol.

Clinical trials also come with some risks. The medicines you may receive in a clinical trial usually have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The medicine may have unwanted side effects, or it may not work as well as doctors hope it will. You may have to commit more time to your treatment if you take part in a clinical trial, and you may have to have more frequent tests.

South Texas Comprehensive Cancer Centers believes that tomorrow’s cures are today’s clinical trials. A strong program of clinical trials is crucial to the discovery of new therapies…

Benefits of participating in a clinical trial are that you:

• Play an active Role in your own health care.
• Gain access to new research treatments BEFORE they are widely available.
• Obtain expert medical care at leading health care facilities
  during the trial.
• Improve the quality of life for yourself and others
  by contributing to medical research.