Clinical cancer research is the heart of the mission of the Cancer Research & Treatment Fund. As a service to health professionals and the lay public alike, CR&T here provides a brief listing of significant sites that are concerned with trials at institutions throughout the United States.

Basic research concerns itself with the exploration of hypotheses regarding what works and what does not work. In this phase of research, we become familiar with beakers, petrie dishes, mice and other basic tools to discover if a proposed treatment statistically and practically warrants trials on humans.

Unless otherwise indicated, these experimental clinical trials are currently recruiting patients. Studies closed to accrual are also included, since follow-up trials open to accrual may be in the planning stage or may be in progress at other medical centers.

Virtually all active cancer protocols are being carried out concurrently at various other medical centers across the country. The great majority of the trials are sponsored either by the federal government (through the National Cancer Institute or its Cancer and Leukemia Group B) or by pharmaceutical corporations.

Trials are categorized by phase, which indicates how far an experimental drug or treatment has progressed.

In phase-I trials, researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people (20-80) for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects. The dosage may start out low and then go higher.

In phase-II trials, the study drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people (100-300) to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.

In phase-III trials, the study drug or treatment is given to large groups of people (1,000-3,000) to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.

It is evident from a perusal of the sites that a wide variety of agents and treatments is being tested including 1) chemotherapeutic drugs that interfere with basic cellular processes; 2) new molecule-targeting drugs, such as Gleevec, which home in specifically on aberrant proteins or genes that make cells cancerous; 3) monoclonal antibodies or other biological agents that do the same; and 4) treatments that stimulate the body’s immune system to attack cancers.

Clinical Trial Sites

National Cancer Institute
1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237)
http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials

The Clinical Trails Network, Columbia University Medial Center, Weill-Cornell Medical Center, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 212-746-1848
Local trials
http://www.columbiaclinicaltrials.org/active_trials.html

The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030
1-800-392-1611 ( USA) / 1-713-792-6161  
http://www.mdanderson.org/patients_public/clinical_trials/