What is the purpose of clinical trials and what do you need to know if you are considering one of these studies? Clinical trials are surrounded in a bit of mystery, and many people become anxious about enrolling.
Learn about the different types of trials, the goals of phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, and phase 4 trials, and how clinical trials are changing with advances intargeted therapiesand immunotherapy so that sometimes an early stage clinical trial may be the best option for survival.
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Overall Purpose of Clinical Trials
The purpose of clinical trials is to find ways to more effectively prevent, diagnose, or treat disease. Every medication, vaccine, and procedure that is used in modern medicine was once studied as a part of a clinical trial.
Myths about clinical trials abound—such as you will be essentially a human guinea pig. But it can be helpful to understand that any approved treatment you will receive as a standard of care was once studied in a clinical trial and found to be superior or have fewer side effects than whatever had been used prior to that time.
Types of Clinical Trials
The purpose of different trials varies depending on the question that is being asked as part of the study. Different types of clinical trials include:
Phases of Clinical Trials
In addition to being a study of a certain type, clinical trials are broken down into phases including:
Need for Clinical Trial Participation
Not only areclinical trialsable to move medicine forward, but in some cases, experimental treatments can offer a chance of survival for patients who haven’t responded to established treatments. Even so, it isn’t always easy to recruit enough participants for trials. In the case of cancer trials, fewer than 5% of adults with cancer enroll in cancer clinical trials.
If you have a condition that’s challenging to treat, talk to your healthcare provider about whether there might be clinical trials recruiting participants for your condition.
2 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Institutes of Health.NIH clinical research trials and you: the basics.Unger JM, Cook E, Tai E, Bleyer A.The role of clinical trial participation in cancer research: barriers, evidence, and strategies.Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2016;36:185-198. doi:10.1200/EDBK_156686
2 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Institutes of Health.NIH clinical research trials and you: the basics.Unger JM, Cook E, Tai E, Bleyer A.The role of clinical trial participation in cancer research: barriers, evidence, and strategies.Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2016;36:185-198. doi:10.1200/EDBK_156686
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
National Institutes of Health.NIH clinical research trials and you: the basics.Unger JM, Cook E, Tai E, Bleyer A.The role of clinical trial participation in cancer research: barriers, evidence, and strategies.Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2016;36:185-198. doi:10.1200/EDBK_156686
National Institutes of Health.NIH clinical research trials and you: the basics.
Unger JM, Cook E, Tai E, Bleyer A.The role of clinical trial participation in cancer research: barriers, evidence, and strategies.Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2016;36:185-198. doi:10.1200/EDBK_156686
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