Clinical trials

When a new treatment becomes available, it brings new opportunities to help people. By this stage it has successfully completed the wide range of trials and tests that all new treatments have to undergo before they can be prescribed.

Thousands of treatments never even get past the ideas stage. If they do, many work in theory but not in practice. New drugs have to go through successive laboratory tests first and only then will some get through to being tested on people - initially on small groups and later larger groups of patients who will be closely studied to see if they are effective, and how safe they are in terms of side effects, before approval for general use.

The amount of work involved in getting treatments to this point is enormous. It's no surprise that researchers are anxious and enthusiastic to recruit volunteers with whom they can test their treatments.

Risks and benefits

As a volunteer you should be fully informed of the risks involved.

When asked by your doctor whether you would be willing to take part in a clinical trial you should never feel under pressure to say yes.

You must be 100 per cent sure that you understand what you're doing and that the trial may have its risks as well as its benefits. You’re also free to change your mind at any point.

If you're at all unsure, don't be afraid to ask for more information, either from the company conducting the research or from another doctor who isn't involved in the trial.