Depending on the type and stage of your cancer, your doctor might recommend a new kind of treatment. The word investigational might come up. Or experimental might be the term used. If the standard treatment options available to you aren't likely to be effective, your doctor might simply suggest that you take part in a "clinical trial."
All these terms might make you feel more than a little anxious. They shouldn't. Investigational treatments that are being given a clinical trial are used only under very stringent conditions. They wouldn't be used at all if there wasn't some hope they would be more effective than other treatments.
What a Clinical Trial Is Advances in cancer treatment are rarely made by one scientist or physician working with a single or even a few patients. Advances usually come about because of some clever idea or concept for a new therapy proposed by a cancer research physician. This idea is eventually tested in a large number of patients to find out two things: Is it effective? And is it as good as or better than conventional treatments?
It takes several hundred and sometimes several thousand patients to prove quickly and reliably whether a new treatment will work and is worthwhile. It is almost impossible to conduct a trial in any single hospital or cancer center. The concept of cooperative clinical trials was developed for just this reason. The rules and procedures for clinical trials are standardized and quite specific.
