Clinical Trials

Treatment clinical trials are research studies that try to find better ways to treat cancer. Every day, cancer researchers learn more about treatment options from clinical trials.
Each study has rules about who can take part. These rules include the person's age and type of cancer. They also cover earlier treatments and where the cancer has returned.
Clinical trials have both benefits and risks. Your doctor should tell you about them before you make any decisions about taking part.
There are different phases of clinical trials. They include:

• Phase I trials test what dose of a treatment is safe and how it should be given.
• Phase II trials discover how cancer responds to a new drug or treatment.
• Phase III trials compare an accepted cancer treatment (standard treatment) with a new treatment that researchers hope is better.

Taking part in a clinical trial could help you and others who get cancer in the future. But insurance and managed care plans do not always cover the costs. What they cover varies by plan and by study. If you want to learn more about clinical trials, talk with your health care team.
For more information about clinical trials, see NCI's brochure Taking Part in Cancer Treatment Research Studies.