Ask Your Doctor About Cancer Clinical Trials

Clinical trial is an experiment designed to improve upon existing standards of care or create a standard of care where none exists. It's never a bad idea to inquire about clinical trials because oncology is a field in which we are constantly trying to improve.

Clinical trials could cover any aspect of treatment and sometimes they may not cover treatment at all. Sometimes it covers the diagnostic end of things. So you may be in a clinical trial that uses a new form of imaging to guide treatment or just uses a new form of imaging just to follow you after treatment.

Clinical trials could cover radiation. Could cover the dose of radiation. Same for chemotherapy. It could cover whether or not you receive chemotherapy, the dose of chemotherapy, type of chemotherapy, or you could just receive a totally new type of chemotherapy added to the standard of care or subtracted from the standard of care.

When you're signing on for a clinical trial you should speak with the physician. Often you will also speak with the clinical trial coordinator.

All clinical trials are driven by questions. So there is a central study question. There also is an expectation or list of possible outcomes that, in general, physicians will expect as a result of the clinical trial.

As a patient, information is your ally. And so in general, with a clinical trial not only are they going to sit you down and talk to you and answer all of your questions, they're going to provide you with reading material. And I think it's very important to take a look at all of it because it may generate more questions for you, or may answer questions.

The more informed you are as a patient in general, it makes the treatment easier. When you know what to expect, when you know why you're doing what you're doing. As you develop an understanding of the purpose of the experiment, you may start to think, OK, you know what? I'm going to do this and also I'm helping other people in the future and maybe they won't have to go through what I went through.