What Is a Clinical Trial?

Cancer trials can test new treatments, ways of controlling symptoms, or new ways of preventing, diagnosing or screening for cancer.

 Why are clinical Trials Important?

Patient care has also improved as a result of trials offered in previous years. Many of the treatments used today are the result of previous trials. The trials being offered today will in some cases become standard practice, that is. they will be incorporated into future treatments and into the way patients are cared for.

How are they Planned?

 New drugs go through strict testing in the laboratory before they are offered to patients. After the laboratory testing there are 3 main phases of clinical trials. Each has a different aim.

Phase 1

Phase 1 trials involves small numbers of patients and aims to establish a safe dose for the drug and identify any possible side effects

Phase 2

Phase 2 trials look at the different ways of giving the drug, whether they are effective and what dose and frequency to use.

Phase 3

Phase 3 trials involve large numbers of patients. they test the new treatment against the best available current treatment to see which is most effective against cancer

What are randomised controlled trials?

Randomised controlled trials are trials with 2 or more treatment groups; 1 recieving the new treatment and 1 recieveing the best available current treatment. This is to ensure that both groups contain a similar mix of patients so we can be sure that results are not influenced by factors such as a patient's age or gender.

           How to open a Clinical Trial via the YCRN Regulatory Process