Clinical Trials Information
Clinical trials are research studies involving patients, which compare a new or different type of treatment with the best treatment currently available (if there is one).
Some clinical trials also look at possible ways to prevent illnesses, for example by testing new vaccines.
No matter how promising a new drug or treatment may appear during tests in a laboratory, it must go through clinical trials before its benefits and risks can really be known.
Trials aim to find out if treatments used in health care:
- Are safe
- Have side effects
- Work better than the treatment used currently
- Help people feel better
Clinical trials are the most reliable and best way of testing a new treatment, or of seeing whether one treatment works better than another. A new treatment is not always better, and can sometimes be worse than existing treatments. Trials are therefore really important when we need to know whether one treatment is safer and more effective than another.
We need clinical trials to improve treatment and care for patients now and in the future.
Many of the treatments now commonly used in the NHS have been tested through clinical trials. For example, in cancer care, trials have been used to try out new treatments – radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, and complementary therapies. Trials have also been used to find out the best ways of using these treatments. This has meant that many people with cancer, HIV/AIDS and many other illnesses live longer and have a better quality of life.
To read this information in full, Click here to refer to the MRC Clinical Trials Unit Web Site.