Research - clinical trials for NHL

Clinical trials may be carried out to:

• test new treatments, such as new chemotherapy drugs, gene therapies or cancer vaccines
• look at new combinations of existing treatments, or change the way they are given, in order to make them more effective or to reduce side effects
• compare the effectiveness of drugs used for symptom control
• find out how cancer treatments work
• see which treatments are the most cost-effective.

Trials are the only reliable way to find out if a different operation, type of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or other treatment is better than what is already available.

Taking part in a trial

You may be asked to take part in a treatment research trial. There can be many benefits in doing this. Trials help to improve knowledge about cancer and develop new treatments. You will also be carefully monitored during and after the study. Usually, several hospitals around the country take part in these trials.

It’s important to bear in mind that some treatments that look promising at first are often later found not to be as good as existing treatments, or to have side effects that outweigh the benefits.

Blood and tumour samples

Many blood samples and bone marrow or tumour biopsies may be taken to help make the right diagnosis. You may be asked for your permission to use some of your samples for research into cancer. If you are taking part in a trial you may also be asked to give other samples which may be frozen and stored for future use when new research techniques become available. These samples will have your name removed from them so you can’t be identified.

The research may be carried out at the hospital where you are treated, or it may be at another hospital. This type of research takes a long time, and results may not be available for many years. The samples will, however, be used to increase knowledge about the causes of cancer and its treatment. This research will hopefully improve the outlook for future patients.

Current research

There are currently a number of research studies looking at different and newer treatments for specific types of NHL. You may be asked to take part in one of them.

Chemotherapy

New chemotherapy| regimes are being tested to see how effective they are in the treatment of NHL and to compare them with other regimes. These regimes include various combinations of chemotherapy drugs which may be combined with different biological therapies|.

Biological therapies

Biological therapies use substances that occur naturally in the body to destroy cancer cells. There are a number of biological therapies that are being used and tested for different types of NHL.

Many of these are being given in combination with chemotherapy drugs. They include monoclonal antibodies|, angiogenesis inhibitors| (drugs which cause tumour cells to die by interfering with their blood supply), cancer growth inhibitors| (drugs which stop cancer cells growing by blocking chemical signals within the cell) and gene therapies|. 

The process of clinical trials is described in more detail in our section understanding cancer research trials|.