Why would a patient be interested in a Clinical Trial?
Patients take part in clinical trials for many reasons. Usually, they hope for benefits for themselves. They may hope for a cure of disease, a longer time to live, a way to feel better. Often they want to contribute to a research effort that might help others. Based on what researchers learn from laboratory studies, and sometimes earlier clinical studies and standard treatments as well, they design a trial to see if a new treatment will improve on current treatments. The hope is that it will. Often researchers use standard treatments as the building blocks to try to design better treatments. Although there is always a chance that a new treatment will be disappointing, the researchers involved in a study have reason to believe that it will be as good as, or better than, current treatments. The patients in a clinical trial are among the first to receive new research treatments before they are widely available. How a treatment will work for a patient in a trial can’t be known ahead of tim
Patients take part in clinical trials for many reasons. Usually, they hope for benefits for themselves. They may hope for a cure of disease, a longer time to live, a way to feel better. Often they want to contribute to a research effort that may help others. Based on what researchers learn from laboratory studies, and sometimes earlier clinical studies and standard treatments as well, they design a trial to see if a new treatment will improve on current treatments. The hope is that it will. Often researchers use standard treatments as the building blocks to try to design better treatments. Many trials have turned out to be better than standard treatments; others have either been not as good as or no better than the treatments already being used. Although there is always a chance that a new treatment will be disappointing, the researchers involved in a study have reason to believe that it will be as good as, or better than, current treatments. There is the potential for immediate person
• Patients take part in clinical trials for many reasons. They may hope for a cure to a disease, a longer time to live, or a way to feel better. And some patients want to contribute to a research effort that may help others. The patients in a clinical trial are among the first to receive new treatments before they are widely available. How a treatment will work for a patient in a trial cannot be known ahead of time. Even standard treatments, although effective in many patients, do not carry sure benefits for everyone. The patients who take part in clinical trial procedures that prove successful have the first chance to benefit from them. All patients in clinical trials are carefully monitored during the trial and follow-up period afterward. And because trials are often funded by outside sources, there is no out of pocket expense to the patient.
