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sources for trials-below
Clinical trials in humans are necessary for the testing of new and hopefully improved treatment options. A team of researchers who've developed the treatment guidelines monitor response, side effects, effectiveness and comparison with standard therapy. These trials are used to test drugs, surgeries, radiation and combinations of treatments, as well as very new arenas such as gene therapy. Clinical trials are considered the leading edge of medicine, and though not all trials lead to improvement, many do.
Cancer trials have four phases;
Two independent phase III trials must be completed before a new drug can get FDA approval and be made commercially available. The drug is compared to existing treatment, or to no treatement at all. In order to establish a baseline, some patients receive the new treatement, some may receive the conventional treatment or placebo (appears to be a treatment, but isn't). If the new treatment is clearly safer and much more effective than alternatives, the FDA will sometimes allow this phase of testing to be omitted, putting the treatment on track for approval.
Participating in clinical trials
If someone is invited by their doctor to participate in a clinical trial, it is most often the one that their doctor or hospital happens to be participating in. As Steve Dunn points out;
"...People are often not informed that there are many trials being conducted throughout the country, and that some are more far more promising than others...You should be aware that different, often very similar, versions of the same treatment can be under test in several different clinical trials at the same time. These trials can be of different phases, so you may have more options than you think. It is normal for good results in a phase II trial to be confirmed by another phase II trial before moving onto phase III trials. Such a confirming trial is a good bet. In addition, there are often several trials of small variations on a new treatment in progress at the same time. Sometimes the differences in treatment make a big difference in results, but sometimes not. If a treatment is promising then variants may also be promising, and it may happen that you qualify for a trial of a variant on a promising treatment." See CancerGuide's articles at http://www.cancerguide.org/clinical_trials.html for more information on how to determine if a clinical trial could be an option for you.
Before deciding to participate, some important questions are
"If 19 patients have been treated, and you are patient No. 20, clearly you should ask whether the treatment worked on your predecessors. If it was not effective for all 19, researchers still need a 20th patient to complete the trial. Researchers would not be obliged to tell patients that the trial didn't work for the first 19 people, since they would only suspect the treatment was ineffective." http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/990524/nycu/trials.b.htm
Before agreeing to participate in any given trial, it's a good idea to get a second opinion from someone who has no involvement with the research or institution.
Advice from a Bladder Cancer Warrior:
Plus Has a pre-searched out list of trials for bladder cancer at this
(very handy) link.
Cancer Trials Information over, and help with finding clinical trials
Cancer Research Portfolio, from the NCI, see the current 325 projects currently underway for bladder cancer
For the European genito-urinary oncology protocol listings
Register of Cancer Trials UK trials
Excellent info source