Clinical Trials

When you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, you are bound to have lots of questions. One of them is sure to concern clinical trials. What exactly are they?

A clinical trial is a medical research study involving volunteers. Such trials play an important role in testing new drugs and combinations of drugs as well as new technology and procedures that may be used in the fight against cancer in future.

Trails are used in all sorts of ways. Not only do they examine new ways of treating cancer but they also study better ways of diagnosing, screening and preventing the disease. Some trials even examine the psychological and social effects of the illness and its treatment.

The researchers conducting trials have four main aims. They want to know if the new treatment or procedure is safe, if it has side effects, if it works better than existing treatments and if it will improve the standard of care for people with cancer.

There are many types of trail but here are some of the most common used in cancer care. Firstly, there are prevention trials. These use drugs, diet, vitamins or other supplements that doctors believe may help lower the risk of contracting a certain type of cancer.

Screening trials examine ways of detecting cancer before symptoms start. Early detection means treatment is more likely to succeed.

Treatment trials are the most common type of all. They look at ways of treating prostate cancer. New drugs, new ways of administering treatment, new combinations of treatments; all of these and more are tested in treatment trials.

Pilot studies are small-scale trials that are designed to test an idea or treatment. If they are successful, a full-scale trial is held.

Quality of life studies look how an illness and/or its treatment affect the patient’s daily life. The aim of these studies is to improve the quality of life for people with cancer.

As trials progress, they move through different phases. Phase 1 is the earliest stage and its main aim is to find a safe dose of the drug or treatment and to find out about its side effects. Usually, only a small number of people (20 to 30) are involved. They are usually in the advanced stages of cancer and they have exhausted all other options open to them. Some will benefit from the trial but many will not. They are doing it in the hope of helping others in future.

Once the drug/treatment has been deemed safe and effective at this stage, it moves on to phase 2. More people (from 50 to 100) are involved in this. Here, the emphasis is still on doses and side effects but researchers are also trying to establish if the drug or treatment is as good as or better than the current standard.

If they can establish this, they can move on to phase 3. This compares the standard treatment with the treatment being tested. This phase of a trial can involve thousands of people, half being treated with the standard and the other half with the trial drug/treatment.

At the end of phase 3, researchers will be confident that the new treatment works but they will still have some questions to answer. What are the long term side effects? And will those who received the new treatment live longer than those who did not? It can take many years to find answers to these questions and this is phase 4.

If you are considering taking part in a clinical trial, you should discuss it carefully with your doctors. They will tell you which trials are currently being run for your type and stage of cancer. They will inform you of the possible advantages and risks. Together, you can weigh up your options and decide on the best course of action.

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