Clinical Trials / Drug Trials

Clinical Trial and its Purpose

Clinical trials / research studies gives a clinician many answers to questions from the point of prevention, detection, diagnosis, control and treatment of illness or a condition such as cancer. It is used not only in relation to a new drug but also to study equipments, devices, treatments, interventions etc.

Clinical trials or research is done when there is some reason to believe that the treatment being studied may be valuable to the patient. Some of the questions answered by doing a clinical trial are:

• How helpful the treatment is?
• How does the experimental drug or new type of treatment work?
• If it works better than already existing treatment options?
• What are the side effects that occur as a result of the new treatment/ drug?
• How serious the side effects are when compared to standard treatment options?
• Do the benefits outweigh the side effects?
• Which groups of people are most likely to benefit from the new drug / treatment?