NCI Features: Clinical Trials and You - National Cancer Institute

Making Progress Against Cancer

National Cancer Survivors Day is June 7, 2009. There are more than 12 million U.S. cancer survivors, thanks in large part to clinical trials. Clinical trials test new ways to prevent, detect, and treat disease in people. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a leading funder of cancer clinical trials.

On this page

Ask Your Doctor About Clinical Trials
Explore Resources for Health Care Professionals
Learn about NCI's Investment in Clinical Trials

Ask Your Doctor About Clinical Trials

What is a clinical trial and how might one benefit you? Check out Clinical Trials: Questions and Answers ¹.
Also see Participating in a Trial: Questions to Ask Your Doctor ².
Search NCI's list ³ of more than 8,000 clinical trials now accepting participants.
A growing number of states have passed legislation ⁴ requiring health plans to pay the cost of routine medical care you receive as a participant in a clinical trial.
For more information, visit the Clinical Trials ⁵ section of this Web site.

Explore Resources for Health Care Professionals

Incorporating Cancer Clinical Trials Into Your Practice ⁶ is a Web-based course for health care professionals interested in becoming a clinical trials investigator.
The NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP ⁷) has developed an Investigator's Handbook ⁸ to define NCI policies with regard to clinical trials and to ensure participant safety.
NCI is supporting the development of a new model to increase enrollment by African Americans in cancer clinical trials. See Simple Measures Can Encourage African Americans to Join Clinical Trials ⁹.
New posters and buttons ¹⁰ provided free by NCI can help raise patients' awareness of clinical trials.
To order free, patient-oriented materials about cancer and clinical trials, search the NCI Publications Locator ¹¹.

Learn about NCI's Investment in Clinical Trials

The newly established Clinical Trials Reporting Program ¹² will create a comprehensive database of NCI-supported clinical trials and will help NCI better manage its clinical trials portfolio.
NCI is restructuring its clinical trials enterprise ¹³ to speed the pace of bringing new treatments and prevention strategies to cancer patients. Greater coordination, careful priority setting, standard operations, and a robust informatics infrastructure are key elements in this new clinical trials enterprise.
Important clinical trials are in progress and have the potential to transform cancer therapy. Two examples:

The TAILORx Breast Cancer Trial ¹⁴ is exploring whether genes that are frequently associated with risk of recurrence for women with early-stage breast cancer can be used to assign patients to the most appropriate and effective treatment.
NCI's Center for Cancer Research (CCR ¹⁵) is leading the way in more quickly identifying and evaluating new cancer drugs in people. See First Phase 0 Oncology Trial Shows Effectiveness of New Drug on Its Target ¹⁶.

The NCI Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP ¹⁷) is a pilot project that makes NCI clinical trials available in local communities.
See a video ¹⁸ about how researchers at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, D.C., are sharing clinical trials data in real time using NCI's caBIG ¹⁹® (cancer Biomedial Informatics Grid).

Learn More

Questions about clinical trials? NCI offers a variety of help options ²⁰. To talk to someone in English or Spanish call 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237); TTY: 1-800-332-8615.

Table of Links

¹ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/cancertop
ics/factsheet/Information/clinical-trials&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

² http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials/learning/questions-to-ask-about-participating&fromUrl=/features/clinicalt
rials2009

³ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials/search&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

⁴ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials/ctlaws-home&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

⁵ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

⁶ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://cme.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials/learning/course7.asp&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

⁷ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://ctep.cancer.gov/&fromUrl
=/features/clinicaltrials2009

⁸ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://ctep.cancer.gov/investig
atorResources/investigators_handbook.htm&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

⁹ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancer
bulletin/042109/page6&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹⁰ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials/ctawareness&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹¹ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=https://cissecure.nci.nih.gov/n
cipubs/&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹² http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancer
bulletin/021009/page9&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹³ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://restructuringtrials.canc
er.gov&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹⁴ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/clinicalt
rials/digestpage/TAILORx&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹⁵ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://ccr.cancer.gov/&fromUrl=
/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹⁶ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/newscente
r/pressreleases/PhaseZeroAbbott

¹⁷ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://ncccp.cancer.gov/index.h
tm&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹⁸ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://cabig.cancer.gov/action/
casestudies/Georgetown/&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

¹⁹ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://cabig.cancer.gov/caBIGst
ory/vision/&fromUrl=/features/clinicaltrials2009

²⁰ http://www.cancer.gov/clicklog.ashx?redirectUrl=http://www.cancer.gov/help&from
Url=/features/clinicaltrials2009