Be sure you know what the objectives are for the clinical trial in which you are being asked to participate. There are five phases, here, phases 1 through 3 are explained in the NCI video below. The higher the number of the phase, the more value it may be for the patient.
This National Cancer Institute will help you understand clinical trial phases, how your safety is protected, issues around paying for trials, and how to find a trial for which you might be eligible.
Although the experimental treatment given in clinical trials is often free, participants are usually required to pay usual care costs. This NCI page discusses what clinical trial costs health insurance plans are required to cover, what conditions must be met for insurance to cover these cost, and what costs plans may not cover. Costs associated for clinical trials.
Because of the nature of the treatments, most trials for childhood cancer are performed in a nationwide network of over 200+ hospitals in collaboration with Children’s Oncology Group.
Marie Ennis O’Connor is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, writer, and consultant on global trends in patient engagement, digital health and participatory medicine. In a very helpful article for the Patient Empowerment Network she wrote, “When it comes to cancer treatment you or a loved one may be considering participating in a clinical trial as a treatment option. Clinical trials are designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a treatment. They may involve researchers administering drugs, taking blood or tissue samples, or checking the progress of patients as they take a treatment according to a study’s protocol.
Learning about clinical trials can be a steep learning curve – not least because the process comes with a lot of new terms, acronyms and jargon. To help you, I’ve put together this list of the most common terms you will find when you are researching clinical trial information.
Author: Joe Baber
Four-Square Clobbers Cancer 