Deciding to Take Part in a Clinical Trial

• You may have access to a new treatment that is not available to people outside the trial.
• The research team will watch you closely.
• If the treatment being studied is more effective than the standard treatment, you may be among the first to benefit.
• The trial may help scientists learn more about cancer and help people in the future.

• The new treatment may not be better than, or even as good as, the standard treatment.
• New treatments may have side effects that doctors do not expect or that are worse than those of the standard treatment.
• You may be required to make more visits to the doctor or undergo more tests than if you were receiving standard treatment. 
• Health insurance may not cover all patient care costs in a trial.

Every clinical trial has a protocol, or study plan, that describes what will be done during the trial, how the trial will be conducted, and why each part of the trial is necessary. The protocol also includes requirements that must be met for you to join a clinical trial. These requirements are called eligibility criteria.

Common eligibility criteria include:

• Having a certain type or stage of cancer
• Having received (or not having received) a certain kind of therapy in the past
• Having specific genetic changes in your tumor
• Being in a certain age group
• Medical history
• Current health status

Criteria such as these help reduce the medical differences among people in the trial. These key similarities allow researchers to be more certain that the study results are due to the treatment being tested and not to other factors.

Some people have health problems besides cancer that could be made worse by the treatments in a trial. If you are interested in joining a trial, you will receive medical tests to be sure that you are a good fit for the trial.