Clinical Trials: Know the Basics

Ghassan Abou-Alfa, M.D., a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the basics of clinical trials, and why participation in them is important.

Clinical trials play a vital role in moving the field of oncology forward. They assesses the safety of a drug, how effective it is in treating the disease and how it works compared to the current standard of care. Since some rarer cancers — like fibrolamellar cancer – do not have standards of care, phase 1 and phase 2 trials will suffice, and patient participation can be even more important.