If you have been diagnosed with cancer and especially if you have just been diagnosed with cancer and have not yet had any treatment, you might want to look into joining a cancer treatment trial if one is available for your cancer. Below is a link to a great article from the National Cancer Institute on how to find a clinical trial. In the article is a link to the PDF Cancer Details Checklist–you will use this checklist to help determine which clinical trials you might be eligible to join.
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Here is an article from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health: How to Find a Cancer Treatment Trial: A 10-Step Guide Updated: 05/30/2014. What follows is the introduction to the article (but don’t stop here, click the above link):
This guide will help you look for a cancer treatment clinical trial. It does not provide medical advice and should not be used in place of advice from your doctor or other members of your health care team. Your health care team and your loved ones, if you wish, can assist you in deciding whether or not a clinical trial is right for you. The decision to take part in a clinical trial is yours alone to make.
This guide takes you through the following steps:
Step 1: Understand Clinical Trials
Step 2: Talk With Your Doctor
Step 3: Complete the Checklist
Step 4: Search NCI’s List of Trials
Step 5: Other Lists of Trials
Step 6: Identify Potential Trials
Step 7: Contact the Trial Team
Step 8: Ask Questions
Step 9: Talk to Your Doctor
Step 10: Make an Appointment
A Word About Timing:
Some treatment trials will not accept people who have already been treated for their cancer. The researchers conducting these trials are hoping to find improved cancer treatments for people with newly diagnosed disease.
- If you have just found out that you have cancer, the time to think about joining a trial is before you have any treatment. Talk with your doctor about how quickly you need to make a treatment decision.
Other treatment trials are looking for people who have already been treated for their cancer.
- If you have already had one or more forms of cancer treatment and are looking for a new treatment option, there are still clinical trials for you to think about.
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