Breast Investigators

Clinical trials are research studies involving people. A clinical trial is a way to test a new treatment to prove that it is safe, effective, and possibly better than a standard treatment. The clinical trial may be evaluating a new drug, a new combination of existing treatments, a new approach to radiation therapy or surgery, or a new method of cancer prevention. A placebo-controlled clinical trial compares a new treatment with a placebo (inactive drug or treatment). Placebo-controlled clinical trials in cancer research are rare, but are used when there is no effective, standard treatment available. Read more about placebos in cancer clinical trials.

Other types of cancer clinical trials study new ways of screening for cancer, diagnosing cancer, or improving a person's quality of life. In clinical trials, the different treatment groups are sometimes called arms.

Cancer clinical trials have led to scientific advances that have increased doctors' understanding of how and why tumors develop and grow. The knowledge gained has helped scientists and doctors develop new ideas on how to prevent cancer, diagnose cancer, slow or halt the development of cancer, and learn the best ways to find a return of cancer after treatment. Because clinical trials can involve hundreds or even thousands of people, it can take a long time to find out the results. Still, clinical trials remain the most reliable route to definitive answers and are the only accepted scientific method to determine if a new treatment works better than the current standard of care.