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Clinical Trials are Special Studies of New Drugs to Test Their Effectiveness and Safety

Clinical trials are special studies of new drugs designed to test their effectiveness and overall safety on humans. There are always clinical trials in progress for drugs and other medications for a wide range of illnesses and medical conditions.

There are both benefits and pitfalls to participating in any medical procedure and it is important that participants understand these beforehand. For example, you may need to travel some distance to be treated at a large medical center for just routine tests and treatments. However, you will typically be treated by the best doctors who are considered experts in their field, and usually at the very best facilities. You should also consider the risk that whilst the drug you are using may eventually be proved to be a wonder drug it could also be proved to be less effective than the current available treatments.

The criteria for eligibility for clinical trials varies. There are some trials which require that you have had no treatment prior to starting and others that will only allow participation after other treatments have failed. Your doctor will be able to advise on the suitability of each trial.

In order to test the new drug against the current standard some trials work by giving half the patients the new drug and half a current drug. You will be told if this is to be the case beforehand. The use of placebos, where the pill is a fake and contains no active ingredients, is also sometimes used, but rare in cancer trials.

All Clinical Trials are Divided Into Phases

Phase I Clinical Trials

Enroll a small group of participants in order to test how the drug(s) and procedures should be administered.

Phase II Clinical Trials

Provides early information about the success rate, safety and benefits of the new drug or procedure.

Phase III Clinical Trials

Where drugs or treatments appear promising they are compared against the current standard using a larger group of candidates.

Anyone interested in participating in a clinical trial should discuss the particular trial thoroughly with their doctor before a making a decision on whether it is right for them.