Patient Education Resource Guide

Cancer clinical trials are research studies that test new cancer treatments to see how well they work, and for some patients with a cancer diagnosis they can be treatment options.

As trials are only one part of the cancer care experience, it is something to ask your doctor about, a conversation to have with your health care team.

Patient & Community Education has a resource which explores this: Clinical Trials at MSK: What You Need to Know.

If you are interested in searching for clinical trials, here are two registries to start with, one specific to cancer and one in general:

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK): Cancer Clinical Trials
  • Learn about clinical trials in general, specific efforts underway at various MSK sites, the experiences of past MSK clinical trial participants, and MSK's clinical trial database.
• National Library of Medicine (NLM): ClinicalTrials.gov
  • Search this database for clinical research studies funded by public and private sectors, registered and conducted in the United States and around the world. A helpful place to start is under Find Studies on the main page: How to Search for Clinical Studies.

If you are interested in more information about clinical trials for cancer, we recommend the following.

• National Cancer Institute (NCI): Clinical Trials Information for Patients and Caregivers
  • General information on cancer clinical trials, their costs and safety concerns, and finding NCI-supported trials in the United States and Canada.
• American Cancer Society (ACS): Clinical Trials
  • Includes a guide and videos that address questions and concerns you may have about clinical trials, and resources for finding one.
• Cancer Support Community: Clinical Trials
  • General information about cancer clinical trials, their phases, how they work, how to find a clinical trial, and when to look for them.
• Cancer Research Institute (CRI): Cancer Clinical Trials
  • Information specific to cancer immunotherapy clinical trials, including their trial finder.

As described in Cancer Disparities on the Patient Advocacy page of this guide, there are sometimes disparities, known as differences or inequalities, between population groups who have cancer.

One way researchers are addressing this is through improved representation in cancer clinical trials, meaning having more people be a part of these trials who may not have joined in the past.

Learn more about this in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Disparities Progress Report, specifically the section Disparities in Clinical Research and Cancer Treatment.