Participating in Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of new treatment interventions. The objective of these clinical trials is to test new therapies in patients who have cancer. Patients participate in clinical trials for several reasons, including:

• The potential to benefit from a new drug or treatment procedure
• Improved management of symptoms resulting from treatment or cancer
• The opportunity to directly contribute to improving the understanding of how to treat a cancer and ultimately, benefit other patients

Patients who participate in clinical trials receive either a promising new treatment or the best available conventional treatment. If a new treatment option is proven to work, patients who are participating in the clinical trial will be among the first to benefit. While there is no guarantee that any treatment will be successful, clinical trials have been proven to offer some of the most effective cancer treatments currently available today.