Screening trials

The goal of cancer screening trials is to test new ways to find disease early. An effective screening test will reduce the number of deaths from the specific type of cancer being screened for.

Researchers who conduct cancer screening studies want to know:

• Does finding disease earlier, before people have any symptoms, save lives?
• Is one screening test better than another?
• How many people who receive the screening test go through follow-up tests and procedures that were unnecessary because they didn’t have cancer?

Other Types of Research Studies
Some clinical research studies do not provide a treatment to patients, but instead try to improve our understanding of a disease. Some examples of these studies are called non-intervention studies or non-therapeutic studies. These clinical research studies often lead to new treatments. Specific examples of non-therapeutic research studies are:

• Collection of tissue samples to learn more about a disease.
• Studies that track anonymous data on large groups of people to collect information such as the long-term health effects of a treatment for a disease.