Clinical Trials

What Are Clinical Trials?

Clinical Trials are research studies in which people help doctors find ways to improve health and cancer care. A clinical trial is one of the final stages of a long a careful drug research process. Studies are done to find out whether promising medications and approaches to disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment are both safe and effective.

Types of Trials

Prevention Trials - used to test new approaches, such as medicines, vitamins, minerals, or other supplements that doctors believe may lower the risk of a certain type of cancer. These trials look for the best way to prevent cancer in people, who have never had cancer, or to prevent cancer from reoccurring, or to prevent a new cancer from occurring in people who have previously had cancer.

Early detection and screening trials - used to test the best way to find diseases, such as cancer, in its early stages.

Treatment Trials - are used to test new approaches to surgery or radiation, new combination of treatments, and or to test new drugs.

About the Process

Clinical Trials have three phases that allow researchers to ask & answer questions in a way that results in reliable information about the drug and protects the patient.

Men and women who decide to participate in any of the sponsored trials, will work with a team of doctors, nurses, and research coordinators, while being under the care of their regular doctor. These professionals provide care, carefully monitor the patients’ health, and give specific instructions about the study.