What are clinical trials? How do we locate appropriate trials?

16.What are clinical trials? How do we
locate appropriate trials?

Advances in treating cancer often start in a scientific
laboratory where potential therapies are first developed
and tested.When one of these potential therapies shows
promise in treating cancer, it is tested in many ways,
including using animals to determine its possible effectiveness
and safety. If the potential therapy passes these
tests, then it goes through a series of strict government
reviews for human safety. After it is reviewed by many
physicians and scientists, and receives government
approval, it then may be offered to human volunteers for
further testing. These volunteers are sometimes referred
to as “research participants,” or by the outdated term,
“research subjects.”

Research participants who meet very specific medical
criteria (such as cancer diagnosis, stage of disease, and
many other factors) may be eligible to participate in an
experimental protocol. One type of experimental protocol
is a clinical trial, which tests cancer treatments
on people. Clinical trials may test brand-new treatments,
or may involve treatments that already are in
use to treat other diseases or cancer types, but physicians
want to see if the therapy may be effective with
different types of cancer. Or, doctors may want to test
a new combination of treatments to improve effectiveness
when combined. Clinical trials are the backbone
of advances in treating cancer and other diseases. If
your family member decides to participate in one, he
or she will not only get state-of-the-art treatment, but
also will be playing a meaningful role in advancing
cancer treatments, with the potential to save other
people’s lives.


Experimental protocol = Research of a new
drug or therapy using very specific materials
and steps.

Clinical trials = Research projects conducted by doctors
to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs, therapies, or
prevention strategies on patients.


Clinical trials are primarily conducted at large research
hospitals and are often supported by pharmaceutical
companies and government research funds. However,
trials can sometimes be offered at private physicians’
offices and other non-specialty hospitals. Participants
are often needed to enroll in clinical trials; in fact,
some trials have a hard time getting enough people to
enroll primarily because patients don’t know they exist.
If you are interested in investigating clinical trials, a
good first step is your local oncologist or primary care
physician—whoever is discussing treatment options
with you. However, physicians may not be aware of all
the hundreds of clinical trials open at any given time,
so you may want to do some research on your own and
then discuss your findings with the doctor. Three
excellent resources are the American Cancer Society
(ACS), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the
Cancer Information Service (CIS). ACS and NCI
both have searchable databases online that provide
descriptions of the research, general eligibility criteria,
and contact information. CIS allows you to call by
telephone to obtain similar information