Clinical trials or treatment protocols are research that involve people. Through clinical trials, doctors find new ways to improve treatments and quality of life for people with the disease.

Researchers design cancer clinical trials to test new ways to:

• Treat cancer
• Detect and diagnose it
• Prevent it
• Treat the symptoms or the side effects of the treatment

Clinical trials are the final step in a long process that begins with research in a laboratory. Before any new treatment is used in people in clinical trials, researchers work for many years to understand its effects on cancer cells in the lab and in animals. They also try to determine the side effects they may cause.

When you or a loved one needs cancer treatment, clinical trials are an option that can be considered and is available for all stages of cancer. It’s a myth that clinical trials are only for people who have advanced cancers that don’t respond to treatment. To search for available studies, see our Available Treatments section.

Today, people are living longer because of the most successful cancer treatments that are the result of past clinical trials. Through clinical trials, doctors determine if new treatments are safe and effective and if they work better than current treatments.

Clinical trials also help us find new ways to prevent and detect cancer. They help us improve people’s quality of life during and after treatment. By participating in a clinical trial, you contribute to our knowledge of cancer and help us improve cancer care and treatment for future patients. Clinical trials are the key to making progress against cancer.

By participating in a treatment protocol, the patient gains access to treatments that may be more effective and even have fewer side effects, but are not yet available on the market, as they are in the preclinical stage.

Clinical trials test new drugs, devices, or treatments. In some cases, participating in a clinical cost will cost you or your insurance company nothing.

Health insurance companies and study sponsors, or pharmaceutical companies, cover the costs of therapies and often offer financial help to cover other treatment-related expenses.

Each clinical trial has a protocol or study plan that describes what will be done in the study, how it will be conducted, and why each part of the study is necessary. The protocol also includes the requirements that must be met in order to participate in the study. These requirements are the eligibility criteria.

Common Eligibility Criteria:

• Having a certain type or stage of cancer.
• Having received (or not received) a certain type of therapy in the past.
• Having specific genetic changes in the tumor.
• Belong to an age group.
• Medical history.
• Current state of health.

Criteria such as these help keep medical differences between study participants to a minimum. When study participants are similar in key characteristics, researchers can be more confident that the results are due to the treatment being tested and not to other factors.

Some people have other health problems besides cancer that could get worse because of the study treatments. If you are interested in participating in a study, certain medical tests will be done to make sure you meet the requirements of the study.

Every research study is different. Each study tries to find the answers to a specific question. Researchers must follow strict rules for deciding who can participate in the study.