Clinical Trials | Healthcare Research | JACC Research | Open Trials

You may hear about health care research through the nightly news, your daily newspaper, over the Internet or from a concerned friend. There are four main types of studies around cancer’s prevention and cure:

• Laboratory experiments are used to find the cause of cancer, or discover the effectiveness of a drug or treatment. They are usually conducted on animals or on cells or tissue.
  
  
• Clinical trials test to make sure that a treatment is the true source of the improvement seen in the laboratory and not some other influences. Participants in trials are randomly selected to receive either the treatment being studied or the current standard of care. The groups are monitored and the results compared to determine the treatment’s effectiveness.
  
  
• Epidemiological research studies look at the natural course of a disease in various groups of people with certain characteristics, such as ethnic background or exercise habits. These types of studies have shown that smokers, for instance, have a higher risk of lung cancer.
  
  
• Outcomes research is also called “evidence-based medicine.” These studies look at the results of treatments to see if certain types of patients, or if patients in certain situations respond better to treatment. The results are sometimes pulled into practice guidelines when the studies show a strong result for that patient group. Your doctor may use these guidelines to help determine your treatment options. Many of these guidelines are available on the Internet. The National Guideline Clearinghouse™, sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans Foundation have hundreds of these evidence-based guidelines at http://www.guideline.gov. The National Cancer Institute’s website, http:// cancernet.nci.nih.gov, also has many guidelines for cancer treatment.

The Internet has a tremendous amount of information about cancer and related topics. With very little training, almost anyone can learn how to use a personal computer at home, the library or a friend’s house to do research. The Internet is like having a giant research library at your fingertips! You may also hear people speak of the Internet as the “World Wide Web” or “The Web.” The Web is really a specific part of the Internet, where addresses for those sites begin with the letters “www.”

There are some key things you should remember if you use the Internet to learn about your cancer and its treatment:

• The members of your healthcare team are your first and best source for information. You should discuss your concerns and need for information with them. If you learn something from the Internet that you need help in understanding, please ask your healthcare professionals. Your healthcare team wants to make sure you have the information that is relevant to your care.
  
  
• The Internet can be a confusing and frustrating source of information for patients. Almost anyone can post anything to the Internet, without any formal check on the medical validity of what is being posted. Therefore, the quality of information on the Internet varies widely. For this reason, we recommend you begin research on the Internet at the major cancer organizations’ Web sites, where the information has been carefully reviewed before being posted on the Web.
  
  
• Clinical trials information is readily available on the Internet, both from government-funded and privately funded sources, like pharmaceutical companies. You may learn of a clinical trial that seems relevant to your cancer. You may bring that information to your doctors’ attention so they can discuss whether it is appropriate to consider for your particular case.
  
  
• The Internet is international, so you may find that treatment guidelines may differ for your cancer in other countries. This should not be a cause for concern. Feel free to ask your doctor about these differences.
  
  
• The amount of information you can find on the Internet can be overwhelming and even a bit intimidating. Start with reputable, known sites. You are then more likely to find the information you are looking for without spending too much time searching.