Patients take part in clinical trials for many reasons. Usually, they hope for benefits for themselves. They may hope for a cure a disease or illness, a longer time to live, or simply, a way to feel better. Often, individuals want to contribute something of themselves to a research effort that may eventually help others around the world.
Based on what researchers learn from laboratory studies, and sometimes earlier clinical studies and standard treatments as well, they design a trial to see if a new treatment will provide on current treatments. Often researchers use standard treatments as the buildings block to design better treatments.
Although there is always a chance a new treatment will be disappointing, the researchers involved in a study have reason to believe that is will be as good as, or better than, current treatments.
The patients in a clinical trial are among the first to receive new research treatments before they are widely available. How a treatment will work for a patient in a trial can't be known ahead of time. Even standard treatments, although effective in many patients, do not carry sure benefits for everyone. But, patients should choose to take part in a study or not, only after they understood both the possible risks and benefits.
The patients who take part in clinical trial procedures that do prove to be better treatments, have the first chance to benefit from them. All patients in clinical trials are carefully monitored throughout a trial and often followed afterwards. They become part of a large network of clinical trials carried out around the country. In this network, physicians, scientist and research nurses pool their ideas and experience to design and monitor clinical studies, sharing their knowledge from many specialties about patient treatments and care. Patients in these studies receive the benefits of this vast knowledge and expertise. From private practice physician's offices to large research institutions, patients are provided special care and attention from a unique research team. |
