What is a Clinical Trial?
Clinical trials are research studies to learn more about new medicines, vaccines, and treatments. Also called “medical research” or “research studies”, a clinical trial aims to discover the effectiveness and safety of the therapy. The clinical trial measures the ability of the new medication to treat a disease or condition.
A clinical trial is a scientific study that investigates new ways to prevent, diagnose, treat or manage a disease. In a clinical trial, doctors compare the proposed new method with the current best method to determine which method offers the most benefits to patients. Scientific discoveries that offer new, more effective treatments for cancer are studied in clinical trials and often become the standard treatments of the future. Clinical trials can bring promising new therapies to cancer patients sooner. To find out more about cancer clinical trials, visit the Canadian Cancer Society web site link on the homepage, speak to your doctor and/or call the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cancer Information Service at 1-888-939-333 Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m, or send an email to info@CIS.cancer.ca.
For the purposes of registration, a clinical trial is any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Clinical trials may also be referred to as interventional trials. Interventions include but are not restricted to drugs, cells and other biological products, surgical procedures, radiologic procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, process-of-care changes, preventive care, etc. This definition includes Phase I to Phase IV trials.
Medical advances can only be made through research. Clinical trials, also called medical research or drug studies, are one important way in which progress is made. They are planned investigations involving patients, which are usually designed to test new therapies. These therapies may include new combinations of current treatments or different ways of prescribing them to see if they can be made more effective or have their side effects reduced. Each study is designed to answer scientific questions and to find new and better ways to help patients. The results help to determine what the best treatments are and help improve care for patients in the future. Before a new treatment is tried with patients, it is carefully studied in the laboratory. This research points out the new methods most likely to succeed and, as much as possible, shows how to use them safely and effectively. But, this early research cannot predict exactly how a new treatment will work with patients. With any new treatm
• A clinical trial is a study conducted with actual patients, usually to evaluate a new treatment. Each study is designed to answer scientific questions and to find new and better ways to help patients. Clinical trials help us find out if a promising new treatment is safe and effective for patients. During a trial, more information is gained about a new treatment, its risks, and how well it may or may not work. The search for viable treatments begins with basic research in laboratory and animal studies. The best results of that research are then used in patient studies, hopefully leading to findings that may help many people. Before a new treatment is tried with patients, it is carefully studied in the laboratory. This research points out the new methods most likely to succeed, and, as much as possible, shows how to use them safely and effectively. But this early research cannot predict exactly how a new treatment will work with patients.
