5 Unexpected Benefits of Participating in a Cancer Clinical Trial
From advancing cancer care for future generations to being monitored more closely for disease progression, there are plenty of reasons to consider joining a cancer clinical trial.
What Should Doctors and Patients Know About Clinical Trials?
Behind each physician and person with cancer is a human with unique experiences. Recognizing this and engaging in open dialogue can help you and your doctors connect.
If your current treatment hasn’t put cancer in remission or halted its progress — or you’re interested in supplementing your care — you may want to consider participating in a cancer clinical trial.
Clinical trials for cancer are essentially research studies that test how well new treatments work. “It may be a brand-new drug that has never been used and approved for any cancer, or it could be a drug that we already use for one kind of cancer, but it hasn’t been shown to work in another type of cancer,” says Dale Shepard, MD, PhD, an oncologist at Cleveland Clinic who has been the principal investigator for dozens of clinical trials.
In a cancer clinical trial, a new treatment is tested against a treatment currently on the market. The researchers compare treatments to see if the new drug is more effective at, for example, easing side effects, improving survival rates, or shrinking the growth of the tumor.
Participating in clinical trials can be a good way to supplement cancer care, but only about 7 percent of people with cancer join them. This could be because people often aren’t aware that clinical trials exist for the cancer they have, says Dr. Shepard. Or because not all oncologists mention the trials to their patients. People may also be hesitant to participate in a trial because there is too much uncertainty involved, or they fear they’ll be treated like a guinea pig.
While there are certainly some risks to joining a clinical trial, such as an increase in side effects, there are also benefits you should be aware of. Some you might not expect if you’ve never considered a trial or known someone who has participated in one. Keep reading to learn about the benefits of participating in a clinical trial.
1. You’ll Have Access to the Latest Cancer Treatments
Clinical trials test the newest cancer treatments, giving participants access to regimens not yet available to the wider population. “We see a lot of patients who come in and say, ‘My doctor says there’s nothing else they can do to help me,’” says Shepard. “By participating in a clinical trial, they have access to a new way to treat the disease.”
2. You May Be Monitored More Closely Than Usual
Participating in a clinical trial can be time consuming. You may have to travel for testing and screenings by the research team or even stay overnight in a clinic. But there can be an upside to those requirements. Getting additional testing can help you and your care team keep a closer eye on the cancer’s progression and respond accordingly.
“As we learn a little bit more about how the drug works, there are oftentimes additional visits or people involved that can help monitor [a participant’s] progress,” says Shepard. As a result, “People have a little bit more monitoring on a clinical trial than they would otherwise.”
3. You May Feel More in Control of Your Treatment Plan
If you have advanced cancer, you may feel as if you’ve lost control over how you’re treating the disease to keep it from progressing. “By choosing to participate in a clinical trial, you may have a bit more say in terms of what you’re doing to fight your cancer,” says Shepard. You may find comfort in the fact that you are exploring all options available to you.
Keep in mind, too, that you won’t be taken off a medication that’s working for you. “We don’t withhold a treatment that we know will be beneficial for someone,” he says. Rather, a clinical trial for cancer will often compare two groups: one group of people on a current, cancer-approved treatment and the other on the new treatment being studied in addition to a current, cancer-approved treatment.
4. You’ll Likely Pay Little to Nothing
Participating in a clinical trial won’t cost you. The fees for the treatment and testing are usually covered by the research study (or, in some cases of standard treatment, your health insurance), says Shepard.
Clinical trials do often require some travel. But, “A lot of the sponsors of trials are now covering travel expenses, such as an overnight hotel stay and gas,” he says.
5. You’ll Help Others Like You — Both Now and in the Future
There’s an altruistic reason to join a clinical trial: You’ll help advance treatments for cancer that will benefit people years from now, says Shepard. Ultimately, effective cancer treatments exist because they’ve been shown to work in clinical trials. “Last year, there were 15 drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for cancer,” he says.
Even if a certain treatment doesn’t benefit you — and that’s always a possibility — that knowledge is helpful to oncologists, who will use it to make better recommendations to their patients, says Shepard.
The Takeaway
Although there is always some degree of risk associated with clinical trial participation, there are many benefits, such as feeling more in control of your treatment plan.
Clinical trial participation often requires a larger time commitment than standard care. But some people find this worthwhile, because the cancer’s progression is monitored more closely — usually at no additional cost.
By participating in a clinical trial, you may not only get access to novel treatments, but also play a direct role in advancing cancer care for future generations.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Unger JM et al. National Estimates of the Participation of Patients With Cancer in Clinical Research Studies Based on Commission on Cancer Accreditation Data. Journal of Clinical Oncology. June 20, 2024.
Conor E. Steuer, MD, is medical oncologist specializing in the care of aerodigestive cancers, mesothelioma, and thymic malignancies and an assistant professor in the department of hematology and medical oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. He joined the clinical staff at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute as a practicing physician in July 2015. He currently serves as chair of the Lung and Aerodigestive Malignancies Working Group and is a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship.
Dr. Steuer received his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine in 2009. He completed his postdoctoral training as a fellow in the department of hematology and medical oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, where he was chief fellow in his final year.
He has been active in research including in clinical trial development, database analyses, and investigation of molecular biomarkers. He is interested in investigating the molecular biology and genomics of thoracic and head and neck tumors in order to be able to further the care of these patient populations. Additionally, he has taken an interest in utilizing national databases to perform clinical outcomes research, as well as further investigate rare forms of thoracic cancers.
Steuer's work has been published in many leading journals, such as Cancer, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and Lung Cancer, and has been presented at multiple international conferences.
Maria Masters is a contributing editor and writer for Everyday Health and What to Expect, and she has held positions at Men's Health and Family Circle. Her work has appeared in Health, on Prevention.com, on MensJournal.com, and in HGTV Magazine, among numerous other print and digital publications.
