The following is a list of Frequently Asked Questions about clinical trials. Please click each question for our answer.
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If you decide to take part in a research study, you do so as a volunteer. Being a volunteer means that you decide whether or not you will take part and for how long. Whatever decision you make, you will still receive the same care, attention and legal rights you expect and deserve.
Every major medical treatment or practice now given to patients was once part of a research study given to volunteers. Research studies that are open now are the most promising of the new ideas to treat or prevent cancer. Sometimes a research study is the only way you would receive a new drug or procedure. You may want to take part in a study to find a better treatment for a condition you have or you may join a study to try to lower your chances of getting cancer. Your health may get better because of being in the study although this outcome cannot be guaranteed. Your condition may stay the same or may get worse. No one can completely predict the outcome of a research study or how it might affect you. Therefore, there may not be any direct benefit to you if you join a study.
You may want to take part in a study because you want to help other patients in the future and to contribute to the general knowledge of how cancer behaves, how it can be prevented and how it can be cured.
The chart below shows some of the benefits and drawbacks to volunteering for a study.
| Benefits | Drawbacks |
| Access to promising new treatments that may not be available anywhere else. If the new treatment approach is proven to work and you are taking it, you may be among the first to benefit. | You may not experience any benefit or you may experience detriment from the new treatment. |
| Increase the likelihood that future cancer patients will have access to safe, effective treatments that can potentially extend their lives or rid them of disease. | You may not get the newest treatment or drug being tested in the research study, but you would be given the current and standard treatment that is prescribed to patients with your type of cancer or risk of cancer. |
| Contribute directly to the knowledge base of medical science. | If a new treatment has benefits, it may not work for you. |
| You will receive close attention and be carefully monitored by your doctors and the research team. | There may be risks associated with new drug therapies |
| Clinical trials may represent the best treatment option. | New treatments under investigaton are not always better than or even as good as, standard care. |
| Clinical trials offer high-quality cancer care. | You may experience side effects that doctors do not expect or that are worse than those of standard treatment. |
| Additional research testing costs would be covered by the study funds. These tests may monitor or diagnose health conditions that may not otherwise be discovered. | You may be required to undergo additional testing from which you may not receive direct benefit from. |
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