Clinical trials offer patients access to promising new treatments which have not yet been approved. They offer an opportunity to help make new treatments available to all patients by helping to advance science. Patients in clinical trials receive high-quality care and are carefully followed.
If commercially available drugs are not working, then new drugs available only within clinical trials may be recommended. Depending upon the circumstances, a patient may also seek to participate in a later phase clinical trial (e.g., phase III) even from the onset of the disease.
Learn more about clinical trials from the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups. The coalition is a group of nine organizations that are called cooperative groups. The cooperative groups bring together hundreds of institutions to conduct the large, Phase III trials that compare therapies and are often critical in getting new therapies approved
The Cancer Trials Support Unit (CTSU) is an NCI funded program to facilitate participation (by both patients and physicians) in phase III NCI sponsored Cancer treatment trials.
print
back to top