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Cancer clinical trials which are also called clinical studies are the way we have to find
new ways to prevent, treat and diagnose cancer.
All of the treatments that we now consider to be standard today were once tested in clinical
trials.
When patients volunteer to be part of a clinical trial they're taking part in research and
on one hand have the opportunity to gain access to a new therapy, a potential treatment that
they might not otherwise have access to for themselves and the hope of personal gain.
On the other hand they're contributing knowledge that will help future cancer patients as well
and help us develop the new standards of tomorrow.
As you talk about clinical trials with your doctor you may hear your doctor speak of them
in terms of phases, a phase one clinical trial, a phase two clinical trial, a phase three
clinical trial.
Each phase of clinical trials has different objectives.
A phase one clinical trial is the first time a drug or a combination of drugs are being
used in people.
And the goal of a phase one study is to determine the optimal dose and schedule and find out
the side effects associated with new treatments.
A phase two clinical trial treats a more homogenous patient population, treats people with a certain
disease or certain characteristics of their tumor in order to find out initially does
the treatment work against your type of tumor.
That's a phase two study.
When discussing a phase three clinical trial you may hear the term randomization, because
phase three studies assign patients to the different treatment arms, the different possibilities,
the standard therapy or the experimental therapy by chance.
A computer program will often make that assignment.
When you choose to take part in a phase three study you are told beforehand what the possibilities
are and what the treatment assignments might be.
These are often called randomized clinical trials and they're the final stage in the
development of a new treatment before it seeks approval by the FDA.
In a phase three clinical trial we're often treating hundreds and sometimes thousands
of patients to show that the new treatment is better than the standard.
Clinical trials represent the highest quality cancer care that we can provide and therefore
I recommend that all patients discuss the options of clinical trials with their doctors.
One place where you can get excellent patient oriented clinical trial information is on
Cancer.Net, www.cancer.net.
Cancer.Net has information presented as text that you can read about clinical trials, but
also video content about clinical trials to answer the questions that you might have about
participating in a clinical trial.
There is a program on Cancer.Net called PREACT, which stands for Preparatory Education Clinical
Trails, that you can find at www.cancer.net/preact, p-r-e-a-c-t.
The PREACT program will give you access to a video library that addresses the common
questions that people have about participating in a clinical trial.
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