A clinical trial is a research study involving a select group of people who have volunteered to try an intervention — such as a drug or other therapy, a new screening test, a behavior change or procedure — under close medical monitoring. Clinical trials look to answer questions about the safety and/or effectiveness of the intervention. No matter how promising a new drug, vaccine or procedure looks when tested in the laboratory, it cannot be approved for general use in humans until it has been carefully assessed through several phases of clinical study that includes such volunteer participants.
All cancer patients at the Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Institute are evaluated for participation in a clinical trial. If you are interested in participating in one of the clinical trials offered at the Cancer Institute, or if you have questions about clinical research, ask your doctor or please reach out to a member of our research team at (225) 765-7659.
From one perspective, patients are contributing to vital cancer research that can put them among the first to benefit and positively affect outcomes for other cancer patients.
From another perspective, those patients are often receiving the most advanced and innovative treatments not available outside of clinical trials and under the attentive care of additional medical professionals who complement their regular cancer care team.
