What is a cancer trial?
Cancer trials test new, more effective ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer.
Trials can involve testing new drugs or combinations of commonly used drugs, new therapies, new ways of treating cancer, or new ways of diagnosing cancer.
They may test surgical techniques, medical devices, or physical therapies. They can also investigate blood samples and tissues.
Overall, cancer trials aim to find better ways to:
- Detect cancer, especially in the early stages
- Treat cancer
- Prevent cancer from reoccurring
- Improve the comfort and quality of life for people with cancer
The idea of a cancer trial can initially create unease. However, when patients and their families discover the safety measures and monitoring in place and the experience of others, they become more comfortable with the idea.
The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) also highly regulates trials, and patients are intensively monitored by their consultant and research team at all stages.
Pharmacovigilance staff ensure that the most up-to-date national and EU regulations are adhered to, such as the clinical trial directive 2001/20/EC and associated guidance on adverse event/reactions (‘CT-3’). The HPRA monitors this compliance continuously.
Why we need cancer trials
Cancer trials offer hope.
While new and better treatments are being developed yearly, we still don’t know all the answers. For example, we cannot prevent, diagnose, and treat all cancers.
Almost every family in Ireland has experienced cancer. Around 20,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Ireland each year.
Cancer trials deliver three main benefits:
- They take us closer to finding treatments that stop people dying from cancer.
- They enable patients to access new and novel treatments that would not be available to them otherwise.
- They save the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) millions in drug costs; e.g. in 2016, an estimated 6 million euros was saved in cancer drug costs.
Cancer trials are at the heart of the global search for answers. Every treatment has, at some point, been the subject of a cancer trial.
Cancer trials help doctors and scientists advance ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer that are safe and effective.