About-cancer/treatment/clinical-trials/search/trial-guide

Steps to Find a Clinical Trial

If you are thinking about joining a clinical trial as a treatment option, the best place to start is to talk with your doctor or another member of your health care team. Often, your doctor may know about a clinical trial that could be a good option for you. He or she may also be able to search for a trial for you, provide information, and answer questions to help you decide about joining a clinical trial.

Some doctors may not be aware of or recommend clinical trials that could be appropriate for you. If so, you may want to get a second opinion about your treatment options, including taking part in a clinical trial.

If you decide to look for trials on your own, the following steps can guide you in your search. This information should not be used in place of advice from your doctor or other members of your health care team. This guide takes you through the following steps:

Step 1: Gather Details about Your Cancer

If you decide to look for a clinical trial, you must know certain details about your cancer diagnosis. You will need to compare these details with the eligibility criteria of any trial that interests you. Eligibility criteria are the guidelines for who can and cannot take part in a certain clinical trial.

To help you gather details about your cancer, complete as much of the Cancer Details Checklist as possible. Refer to the form during your search for a clinical trial.

If you need help filling out the form, talk with your doctor, a nurse, or social worker at your doctor's office. The more information you can gather, the easier it will be to find a clinical trial to fit your situation.

Step 2: Find Clinical Trials

There are many lists of cancer clinical trials taking place in the United States. Some trials are funded by nonprofit organizations, including the U.S. government. Others are funded by for-profit groups, such as drug companies. Hospitals and academic medical centers also sponsor trials conducted by their own researchers. Because of the many types of sponsors, no single list contains every clinical trial.

Watch this quick overview of how to search for an NCI-supported clinical trial. You can also always call 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) to speak with an NCI cancer information specialist in English or Spanish.

Helpful Tip: Whichever website you use to search for clinical trials, be sure to bookmark or print a copy of the protocol summary for every trial that interests you.

A protocol summary should explain the goal of the trial and describe which treatments will be tested. It should also list the locations where the trial is taking place.

Keep in mind that protocol summaries are written for health care providers and use medical language to describe the trial that may be difficult to understand. For help understanding the protocol summary, call, email, or chat with a trained information specialist at the NCI Contact Center.

NCI-Supported Clinical Trials

NCI's website helps you find NCI-supported clinical trials that are taking place across the United States, Canada, and internationally. The list includes:

• All NCI network trials, including trials supported through the:

• National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN)

• NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP)

• Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN)

• Trials that are funded in full or in part by NCI, including trials taking place at NCI-Designated Cancer Centers

• Trials at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland

If you need help with your search, you can call, email, or chat with a trained information specialist at the NCI Contact Center. They will need to know details about your cancer, so have your Cancer Details Checklist ready.

Other Lists of Trials

In addition to NCI's list of cancer clinical trials, you may want to check a few other trial lists.

Other places to look for lists of cancer clinical trials include:

ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov, which is part of the National Library of Medicine, lists clinical trials for cancer and many other diseases and conditions. It contains trials that are in NCI's list of cancer trials as well as trials sponsored by pharmaceutical or biotech companies that may not be on NCI's list.

Cancer Centers and Clinics that Conduct Cancer Clinical Trials

Many cancer centers across the United States, including NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, sponsor or take part in cancer clinical trials. The websites of these centers usually have a list of the clinical trials taking place at their institutions. Some of the trials included in these lists may not be on NCI's list.

Keep in mind that the amount of information about clinical trials on these websites can vary. You may have to contact a cancer center clinical trials office to get more information about the trials that interest you.

Drug and Biotechnology Companies

Many companies provide lists of the clinical trials that they sponsor on their websites. Sometimes, a company's website may refer you to the website of another organization that helps the company find patients for its trials. The other organization may be paid fees for this service.

The website of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) includes a list of its member companies, many of which sponsor cancer clinical trials. PhRMA is a trade organization that represents drug and biotechnology companies in the United States.

Clinical Trial Listing Services

Some organizations provide lists of clinical trials as a part of their business. These organizations generally do not sponsor or take part in clinical trials. Some of them may receive fees from drug or biotechnology companies for listing their trials or helping find patients for their trials.

Keep the following points in mind about clinical trial listing services:

The lists of trials provided by these organizations often draw from the trial lists that are available from the U.S. government (NCI and ClinicalTrials.gov).

• The websites of these organizations may not be updated regularly.

• The websites of these organizations may require you to register to search for clinical trials or to obtain trial

• contact information for trials that interest you.