What are the benefits and risks of participating in a clinical trial?
• Play an active role in their own health care. • Gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available. • Obtain expert medical care at a leading health care facility during the trial. • Help others by contributing to medical research. • You should also be aware of potential risks with clinical trials. • There may be unpleasant, serious or even life-threatening side effects to an experimental treatment. If serious side effects occur, the Center for Skin Research will halt treatment immediately. • The experimental treatment may not be effective for the participant. • The study may require more time and attention than a non-study treatment, including trips to the study site, more treatments or complex dosage requirements.
You may benefit because all clinical trial patients are given excellent medical care and may receive access to new experimental drugs, not yet available to the public that could prove beneficial in treating people. You could possibly be helping in the future with the development of safer and better drugs. Conversely, the new drug or may not be effective, or it may have undesirable side effects.
Benefits Clinical trials that are well-designed and well-executed are the best treatment approach for eligible participants to: Play an active role in their own health care. Gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available. Obtain expert medical care at leading health care facilities during the trial. Help others by contributing to medical research. Risks There are risks to participating in a clinical trial. There may be unpleasant, serious or even life-threatening side effects to treatment. The treatment may not be effective for the participant. The protocol may require more of their time and attention than would a non-protocol treatment, including trips to the study site, more treatments, hospital stays or complex dosage requirements.
Benefits: Clinical trials that are well-designed and well-executed are the best approach for eligible participants to: • Play an active role in their own health care. • Gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available. • Obtain expert medical care at leading health care facilities during the trial. • Help others by contributing to medical research. Risks: There are risks to clinical trials. • There may be unpleasant, serious or even life-threatening side effects to treatment. • The treatment may not be effective for the participant. • The protocol may require more of their time and attention than would a non-protocol treatment, including trips to the study site, more treatments, hospital stays or complex dosage requirements.
