Clinical trials is a research investigation in which people volunteer to test new treatments, interventions or tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage various diseases or medical conditions. Some investigations look at how people respond to a new intervention and what side effects might occur. This helps to determine if a new intervention works, if it is safe, and if it is better than the interventions that are already available.
Researchers also conduct clinical trials to evaluate diagnostic or screening tests and new ways to detect and treat disease.
Types of Clinical Trials
• Treatment Trials test new treatments, new combinations of drugs, or new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy.
• Prevention Trials look for better ways to prevent a given disease in people who have never had that disease or to prevent a disease from returning. Preventative approaches include medicines, vitamins, vaccines, minerals, and lifestyle changes.
• Diagnostic Trials are conducted to find better tests or procedures for diagnosing a particular disease or condition.
• Screening Trials test the best way to detect certain diseases or health conditions.
• Quality of Life Trials (or supportive care trials) explore ways to improve comfort and the quality of life for individuals with a chronic illness.
Clinical trials are essential to the development of new interventions. Without clinical trials, one cannot properly determine whether new medicines developed in the laboratory or by using animal models are effective or safe, or whether a diagnostic test works properly in a clinical setting. This is because computer simulation and animal testing can only tell so much about how a new treatment might work and are no substitute for testing in a living human body.
Clinical trials also permit testing and monitoring of the effect of an intervention on a large number of people to ensure that any improvement as a result of the intervention occurs for many people and is not just a random effect for a one person.
Most modern medical interventions are a direct result of clinical research. New interventions for most diseases and conditions -including cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and asthma -have been developed through clinical research. Clinical trials often lead to new interventions becoming available that help people to live longer and to have less pain or disability. Clinical trials can also help to improve health care services by raising standards of treatment. Doctors and hospital staff involved in clinical trials are continually trained to provide best practice patient care.