How to take part in a clinical trial

If you are interested in taking part in a trial, you should speak to your doctor or medical professional responsible for your care. We cannot respond directly to patient enquiries.

Your doctor or specialist can make requests to us and others places that run trials. They will then be able to refer you if they decide a trial would be in your interests.

Trials will not always be suitable for you or likely to benefit you.

Find out more about trials taking place from these websites:

• Cancer Research UK: Find a Clinical Trial
• NIHR: Be Part Of Research

If a trial is found to be suitable for you, your doctor or hospital research team will talk to you about it. They will give you a patient information sheet telling you about:

• the aims of the trial
• the hospital visits you could expect
• what would happen at those visits
• possible side effects of the treatment

You will have time to go away and read this information and to ask any questions before you decide to take part.

If you take part in a clinical trial, we will need to collect personal information from you that is relevant to the running and outcomes of the study. The type and amount of data may vary depending on the type of study, but is necessary to conduct research to improve health, care and services.

Crispin's story: taking part in a immunotherapy trial

Crispin, a 40-year-old doctor, was accepted onto one of our immunotherapy trials to treat his oesophageal cancer. He had been told he might only have months to live.

Read Crispin's story

Ivan's story: taking part in a prostate cancer trial

Ivan took part in the CRUK-funded ProCAID trial after his standard treatment for prostate cancer stopped working.