Brooklyn's MBCCOP - About Cancer Clinical Trials

• What are cancer clinical trials?
• Types of clinical trials
• Phases of Clinical Trials
• What are some of the good things (benefits) about being part of clinical trials?
• What are some of the drawbacks (risks) to being part of clinical trials?
• What kind of information will I get about the trials?
• Who looks out for the patient?
• As a patient, do I have to be part of a clinical trial?

What are cancer clinical trials?

A cancer clinical trial is a study that helps doctors and researchers find better ways to prevent, treat or diagnose cancer. All of today’s successful treatments for cancer are based on results of clinical trials done in the past. As a result, people treated for cancer are living longer.

*Doctors believe it is important to have people of all races, genders, ages and backgrounds take part in clinical trials so that what is learned will help everyone.

Types of clinical trials

Prevention trials-
To find out how to reduce the chance of developing cancer.

Screening trials-
To look for ways to detect cancer before a person has symptoms from a cancer. A patient usually does better if a cancer is detected and treated earlier.

Diagnostic trials-
For people who have symptoms from a cancer. It looks for better ways to identify cancer at an earlier stage.

Treatment trials-
For people who have cancer. It compares standard treatments to new treatments. Standard treatment is the current way patients are most often cared for.

Quality of life trials-
Look for ways to make life more comfortable for cancer patients who are having symptoms from a cancer or having side effects from the treatments.

Genetic trials-
Sometimes a cancer trial may also look at how family genes affect detection, diagnosis or response to cancer treatment.

Phases of Clinical Trials

Phase 1 trials-
These are the earliest trials in the life of a new drug or treatment. Phase 1 is sometimes written as phase I. They are usually small trials, recruiting anything up to about 30 patients, although often a lot less. The trial may be open to people with any type of cancer.

When laboratory testing shows that a new treatment might help treat cancer, phase 1 trials are done to find out

• The safe dose range
• The side effects
• How the body copes with the drug
• If the treatment shrinks the cancer

Patients are recruited very slowly onto phase 1 trials. So although they don't recruit many patients, they can take a long time to complete. The first few patients to take part (called a 'cohort' or group) are given a very small dose of the drug. If all goes well, the next group have a slightly higher dose. The dose is gradually increased with each group. The researchers monitor the effect of the drug, until they find the best dose to give. This is called a 'dose escalation study'.

In a phase 1 trial, you may have lots of blood tests, as the researchers look at how the drug is affecting you. They also look at how your body copes with, and gets rid of the drug. They record any side effects.

People taking part in phase 1 trials often have advanced cancer and have usually had all the treatment available to them. They may benefit from the new treatment in the trial, but many won't. Phase 1 trials aim to look at doses and side effects. This work has to be done first, before we can test the potential new treatment to see if it works. Phase 1 trials are important because they are the first step in finding new treatments for the future.

Phase 2 trials-
Not all treatments tested in a phase 1 trial make it to a phase 2 trial. Phase 2 is sometimes written as phase II. These trials may be done on people who all have same type of cancer, or with several different types of cancer. Phase 2 trials aim to find out

• If the new treatment works well enough to test in a larger phase 3 trial
• Which types of cancer the treatment works for
• More about side effects and how to manage them
• More about the best dose to use

Although these treatments have been tested in phase 1 trials, you may still have side effects that the doctors don't know about. Drugs can affect people in different ways.

Phase 2 trials are often larger than phase 1. There may be up to 100 or so people taking part. If the results of phase 2 trials show that a new treatment may be as good as existing treatment, or better, it then moves into phase 3.

Phase 3 trials-
These trials compare new treatments with the best currently available treatment (the standard treatment). Phase 3 is sometimes written as phase III. These trials may compare

• A completely new treatment with the standard treatment
• Different doses or ways of giving a standard treatment
• A new radiotherapy schedule with the standard one

Phase 3 trials usually involve many more patients than phase 1 or 2. This is because differences in success rates may be small. So, the trial needs many patients to be able to show the difference.

For example, 6 out of 100 more people (6%) get a remission with a new treatment compared to standard treatment. If there were 50 people in the new treatment group and 50 people in the standard treatment group, there may be 3 more people in remission in the new treatment group. The 2 groups would not look that different. But if the researchers gave each treatment to 5,000 people, there could be 300 more remissions in the new treatment group.

Sometimes phase 3 trials involve thousands of patients in many different hospitals and even different countries.

Phase 4 trials-
Phase 4 trials are done after a drug has been shown to work and has been granted a license. Phase 4 is sometimes written as phase IV. These trials look at drugs that are already available for doctors to prescribe, rather than new drugs that are still being developed.

The main reasons pharmaceutical companies run phase 4 trials are to find out

• More about the side effects and safety of the drug
• What the long term risks and benefits are
• How well the drug works when it’s used more widely than in clinical trials