Different Kinds of Clinical Trials
If you are facing a serious illness such as cancer, you may consider applying for a clinical trial. A clinical trial is simply medical research that is done involving people. There are different kinds of clinical trials, so understanding something about them is helpful as you navigate your health journey. Some kinds of trials study types of investigational treatment, and these are called interventional trials. Other trials have the goal of discovering what happens to people in various situations, and these are called observational trials.[i]
Interventional Trials
There are many types of interventional trials, but we will look closely at three important ones: prevention trials, screening trials, and experimental treatment trials. These trials are essential in cancer research to learn about this disease, but each trial has a slightly different angle.
Prevention Trials
Prevention trials study ways to prevent a disease, such as cancer, from developing. The people in the study are healthy and don’t have cancer, but may have a higher-than-average risk for a certain type of cancer, or they may have a family history of cancer. Prevention trials may study volunteers’ lifestyle factors, vaccines, or even vitamins, minerals, or other nutritional agents that they use.[ii] Lifestyle factors may include cigarette smoking, amount of exercise, alcohol use, and obesity.[iii] The goal of this trial is learning about disease prevention.
Screening Trials
Screening trials are used to test people for types of cancer before they exhibit any symptoms. The goal is to find the best way to detect disease. Sometimes the researchers want to see if experimental tests give reliable results. Other times they might be looking into the value of finding cancer early. Screening tests are for the general population or those who may have a higher-than-average risk for a type of cancer.[iv]
Experimental Treatment Trials
Experimental treatment trials usually involve an experimental medication or treatment for a disease like cancer. This kind of trial is done in steps, which are called phases. In the beginning, researchers make sure the experimental drug or treatment is safe and determine side effects. Later, the experimental drug or treatment is compared to currently approved and available drugs or treatments. The goal is to see if the experimental drug or treatment works better. [v]
Observational Trials
Observational trials observe and record people in various situations. Researchers don’t intervene or treat people. Three types of observational trials are cohort studies, case control studies, and cross-sectional studies.[vi]
Cohort Studies
The purpose of a cohort study is to look into the causes of a disease and to make connections between risk factors and health.[vii] A cohort study takes a group of people who don’t have cancer. The research team studies them for a number of years and collects information. The goal of the study is to see who develops cancer and to see if those people have anything in common. This kind of study is time consuming and expensive to conduct. However, cohort studies can identity risk factors and test theories about cancer in unique ways.[viii]
Case Control Studies
Case control studies, which are also called retrospective studies, work in a different way than cohort studies. The medical researchers have two groups of people: one with a disease, such as cancer, and another group that doesn’t have the disease. They try to find people with similar traits such as age or gender to take part in the study. They look at the lifestyle and medical histories of the volunteers. The goal of the researchers is to find common risk factors that the members of both groups were exposed to. Case control studies are less expensive than cohort studies and take less time.[ix]
Cross Sectional Studies
A cross sectional study looks at volunteers who have been exposed to a certain risk factor and then determine who gets cancer. The goal is to find out if there is a link between that particular risk factor and cancer. This kind of study looks at a single point in time or a very short period of time, which makes it fast and inexpensive to do. Sometimes researchers do a cross sectional study initially to identify a possible risk factor, and then go on to do either a case control or cohort study to examine that risk factor more closely. [x]
Clinical trials are crucial ways to explore and understand diseases such as cancer and make advances in medical science. We have explored just a few of the many kinds of trials available. This kind of focused medical research is invaluable for medical professionals and can give hope to those who are suffering.
To learn more about melanoma clinical trials, visit BMSStudyConnect.com. The site provides patients and caregivers with information about how clinical trials work and how they might be part of making sure new medicines are effective and safe.
[i] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention
[ii] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention, https://www.fda.gov/patients/clinical-trials-what-patients-need-know/what-are-different-types-clinical-research
[iii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3618690/
[iv] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention, https://www.fda.gov/patients/clinical-trials-what-patients-need-know/what-are-different-types-clinical-research
[v] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention, https://www.fda.gov/patients/clinical-trials-what-patients-need-know/what-are-different-types-clinical-research
[vi] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/281703#finding-causes
[vii] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/281703
[viii] [viii] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention
[ix] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/case-control-study
[x] https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/what-clinical-trials-are/types-of-clinical-trials#prevention,