Clinical trials test new treatments, new ways of giving existing treatments or new combinations of treatments and ways to improve the quality of life of people affected by cancer.
Clinical trials allow patients with different cancer types, including very rare cancer types, to access new treatments that would not normally be available to them.
Clinical trials aim to prove whether a test or treatment is safe and more helpful than what is currently used to manage that cancer type. If a clinical trial can prove that a new treatment is better than the current options available to patients, it could change how cancer is treated.
Clinical trials are divided into stages
- The earliest stage of testing, known as phase 1, is when trials are tested in a small group of patients, sometimes for the first time in humans.
- As we better understand the new treatment, larger numbers of patients are treated in later phase trials called phase 2, 3 and 4.