Cancer Patients Alliance for Clinical Trials & Survivorship

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are a series of graduated and coordinated experiments overseen by governmental regulatory bodies and designed to determine if a drug agent or a device is safe and has efficacy against a given disease process. Cancer clinical trials are the primary engines by which the field of oncology develops more effective tumor therapies.

These trials also represent a way that physicians can make studied judgments about drugs-in-development, creating a wider palette from which to help choose treatment options that appear to have the most promising outcomes for individual patients.

Only 4% of adult patients in the U.S. with cancer now participate in clinical trials, despite beliefs that indicate that ten times as many (or more) would be willing to do so. Also, a surprisingly high percentage of these clinical trials close prematurely without results - ironically, due to a lack of patient participation. This misalignment of intents and purposes is tragic.