Browser does not support script.
Skip to main content
search here
Find out how we produce our information|
Clinical trials are medical research trials involving patients. Patients take part in trials in all areas of medicine, not just in cancer and not just to test treatments.
A clinical trial may also be used to compare different ways of diagnosing an illness, or it might test techniques for preventing a particular cancer.
Carrying out clinical trials is the only way to find out if a new approach to cancer care is better than the standard approach currently used. Without trials, it would be very difficult to improve the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. There would also be a risk that patients could be given treatments that could be harmful.
Trials are more commonly used with some cancers than with others. For example, there are often more trials for cancers that affect a lot of people, such as breast cancer| or bowel cancer| and fewer trials for rarer types of cancer, such as cancer of the pancreas|.
Treatment trials are the most common type of trial. In cancer care, they may be carried out to:
Treatment trials are the only reliable way of finding out if a different operation, type of chemotherapy, targeted therapy or radiotherapy| is better than what is already available.
If doctors already knew that a new treatment was better than the standard treatment, there would be no need for a clinical trial and patients would be offered it routinely as part of their care.
The treatment being tested may aim to:
Many drugs that have been tested in clinical trials are now commonly used, such as tamoxifen| or Herceptin®| for breast cancer and paclitaxel| for ovarian cancer.
Without ongoing clinical trials, it wouldn’t be possible to add to our knowledge about effective treatments.
These look at whether a specific treatment or approach, such as vitamins or diet, may help to prevent a specific type of cancer.
Screening trials look at new ways of testing a person for a specific cancer. These trials are often aimed at detecting cancer early when the chance of a cure may be highest.
These look at new ways of accurately identifying a cancer. It usually includes people who may have symptoms of cancer.
You may be invited to one of these trials, which look at ways of improving a person’s sense of well-being. Many quality of life trials are combined with treatment trials because doctors want to know what effect a particular treatment has on a person’s everyday life. They often include questionnaires, which are completed at different stages during the trial. These may assess the psychological and financial impact of the treatment on both patients and their carers. For example, it may assess whether someone has to take time off work to look after you while you have your cancer treatment.
For answers, support or just a chat, call the Macmillan Support Line free (Monday to Friday, 9am-8pm)
If you have any questions about cancer, need support or just want someone to talk to, ask Macmillan.