# Clinical trial

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/clinical-trial/  
OnCo record `clinical-trial` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A research study that tests a treatment in volunteers under strict rules, to find out whether it is safe and whether it works. Every approved cancer drug went through several.

## Summary

Trials have a written protocol specifying who may join, what they receive, what is measured and how the results will be analysed, and are overseen by ethics committees and regulators; participants give informed consent and are usually monitored more closely than in routine care. Cancer trials progress through phases, from small safety studies to large randomised comparisons against the standard of care, and their results, reported at congresses such as ASCO and ESMO and in journals, are what change practice and win approvals. Fewer than one in ten adult cancer patients take part, participation is skewed towards younger, wealthier and white patients, and the cost and duration of trials is one of the field's main bottlenecks.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: clinical trials; clinical study; clinical studies; enrolled; enrolment; enrollment; enrolling; recruiting; trial participants; trial arm; experimental arm; control arm; comparator arm; single-arm; single arm; investigational; trial participant

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_trial
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_trial

## Connected records

- terms: [A clinical trial or standard treatment for gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/trial-or-standard-treatment-biliary/), [A clinical trial or standard treatment in lymphoma](https://onco.cc/terms/lymphoma-decision-trial/), [Abigail Alliance v. von Eschenbach (2007)](https://onco.cc/terms/abigail-alliance/), [Basket, umbrella, and platform trials](https://onco.cc/terms/basket-umbrella-platform/), [Blinded trial](https://onco.cc/terms/blinding/), [Clinical equipoise](https://onco.cc/terms/clinical-equipoise/), [Clinical Trials Regulation (EU) No 536/2014 and CTIS](https://onco.cc/terms/eu-clinical-trials-regulation/), [Declaration of Helsinki](https://onco.cc/terms/declaration-of-helsinki/), [Endpoint](https://onco.cc/terms/endpoint/), [Ethics review (IRB, research ethics committee)](https://onco.cc/terms/ethics-review/), [Expanded access (compassionate use)](https://onco.cc/terms/expanded-access/), [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Kefauver-Harris Amendments](https://onco.cc/terms/fdca/), [ICH good clinical practice (E6)](https://onco.cc/terms/ich-gcp/), [In vitro and in vivo](https://onco.cc/terms/in-vitro-in-vivo/), [Informed consent](https://onco.cc/terms/informed-consent/), [Phase 1, 2 and 3 trials](https://onco.cc/terms/trial-phases/), [Placebo](https://onco.cc/terms/placebo/), [Preclinical](https://onco.cc/terms/preclinical/), [Randomised trial](https://onco.cc/terms/randomised-trial/), [Real-world evidence](https://onco.cc/terms/real-world-evidence/), [Right to Try Act 2018 and state right-to-try laws](https://onco.cc/terms/right-to-try/), [Standard of care](https://onco.cc/terms/standard-of-care/), [The Common Rule (45 CFR 46)](https://onco.cc/terms/common-rule/), [Trial lifecycle: from protocol to label](https://onco.cc/terms/trial-lifecycle/), [Trial registration and results reporting (ClinicalTrials.gov, EU CTR)](https://onco.cc/terms/trial-registration/)
- technologies: [AI trial matching & clinical decision support](https://onco.cc/technologies/ai-trial-matching/)
- cancers: [Gallbladder cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gallbladder/), [Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC)](https://onco.cc/cancers/tnbc/)
- journals: [American journal of clinical oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/american-journal-of-clinical-oncology/), [Asia-Pacific journal of clinical oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/asia-pacific-journal-of-clinical-oncology/), [BMC cancer](https://onco.cc/journals/bmc-cancer/), [Cancer treatment and research communications](https://onco.cc/journals/cancer-treatment-and-research-communications/), [Current problems in cancer](https://onco.cc/journals/current-problems-in-cancer/), [International journal of clinical oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/international-journal-of-clinical-oncology/), [Japanese journal of clinical oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/japanese-journal-of-clinical-oncology/), [Neoplasia](https://onco.cc/journals/neoplasia/), [Oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/oncology-karger/), [The Lancet Haematology](https://onco.cc/journals/lancet-haematology/), [World journal of surgical oncology](https://onco.cc/journals/world-journal-of-surgical-oncology/)
- institutions: [Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre](https://onco.cc/institutions/bristol-haematology-oncology-centre/), [Nottingham University Hospitals Cancer Centre (City Hospital)](https://onco.cc/institutions/nottingham-cancer-centre/), [Queen's Centre for Oncology and Haematology, Castle Hill Hospital](https://onco.cc/institutions/queens-centre-hull/), [Weston Park Cancer Centre, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals](https://onco.cc/institutions/weston-park-sheffield/)
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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/clinical-trial.json