Research – clinical trials

• See current cancer of the womb (uterus) trials

Research into new ways of treating cancer is going on all the time.

When a new treatment is being developed, it goes through various stages of research. To begin with it will be looked at in the laboratory, and sometimes tested on cancer cells in a test tube. If the treatment seems as though it might be useful in treating cancer, it is then given to patients in research studies (clinical trials). As a first step, these aim to find a safe dose, see what side effects the therapy may cause, and identify which cancers it might be used to treat. These early studies are known as phase 1 trials.

If early studies suggest that a new treatment may be both safe and effective, further trials (phases 2 and 3) are done to find out whether it is better than existing treatments, has extra benefit when given together with existing treatments, and compare the new treatment with the current best standard treatments.

Clinical trials are very necessary for working out how useful any possible new treatment might be, and seeing whether it is better than existing treatments. Because this must be done carefully and thoroughly, it usually takes some years from the time when a new treatment is first discovered (often with a lot of publicity in the papers and on TV) until the time when its true value is established.

You may be asked to take part in a trial. There can be many benefits in doing this. You will be helping to improve knowledge about cancer and the development of new treatments and you will be carefully monitored during and after the study. One such study currently running in the UK for women with early-stage womb cancer is called the ASTEC Trial. This trial is trying to find out whether removing the lymph glands close to the womb during hysterectomy is better than just removing the womb. It is also trying to find out whether giving radiotherapy as well as surgery is better than surgery alone.

It is important to bear in mind that some treatments that look promising at first are often later found not to be as good as existing treatments, or to have side effects that outweigh any benefits.

CancerBACUP has further information on cancer research trials.

As part of research you may be asked by your doctors for permission to store some of the samples of your tumour or blood, so that they can be used as part of trials to find the causes of cancer.