What are the types of clinical trials?
As you research and learn about clinical trials, you may come across different types of trials:
- Prevention trials study how healthy people may lower their cancer risk. People who are at high risk of getting cancer may benefit from participation in a prevention trial.
- Early-detection/screening trials discover ways to find early-stage cancer.
- Diagnostic trials find new and better ways to determine if someone has cancer--and, if so, where the cancer is located in the body, how much cancer is there, and whether it has spread to other parts of the body.
- Therapeutic/treatment trials study how specific anticancer treatments affect the patients who receive them.
- Quality of life/supportive care trials seek to improve the comfort and quality of life of patients and their families or caregivers.
