Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are research studies that test how well new medical approaches work in people. Each study answers scientific questions and tries to find better ways to prevent, screen for, diagnose, or treat a disease. Clinical trials may also compare a new treatment to a treatment that is already available.
Every clinical trial has a protocol, or action plan, for conducting the trial. The plan describes what will be done in the study, how it will be conducted, and why each part of the study is necessary. Each study has its own rules about who can take part. Some studies need volunteers with a certain disease. Some need healthy people. Others want just men or just women.
An Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews, monitors, and approves many clinical trials. It is an independent committee of physicians, statisticians, and members of the community. Its role is to:
- Make sure that the study is ethical
- Protect the rights and welfare of the participants
- Make sure that the risks are reasonable when compared to the potential benefits
In the United States, a clinical trial must have an IRB if it is studying a drug, biological product, or medical device that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates, or it is funded or carried out by the federal government.
It sits within Personal Health Issues.
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Research on Clinical Trials
1,12,452 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- The Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Clinical Trial PlatformAdam Boxer
- Targeted Therapy Directed by Genetic Testing in Treating Patients With Advanced Refractory Solid Tumors, Lymphomas, or Multiple Myeloma (The MATCH Screening Trial)National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- Safety and Efficacy of OTL78 (Zopocianine)Clinton Bahler
- Colchicine Use in Intracranial Atherosclerotic DiseaseChinese University of Hong Kong
- Chinese Medicine for Treating Chronic PharyngolaryngitisChinese University of Hong Kong
- Combination Chemotherapy With or Without Atezolizumab in Treating Patients With Stage III Colon Cancer and Deficient DNA Mismatch RepairNational Cancer Institute (NCI)
Research already completed
- Phase 2a Study to Evaluate Safety and Explore Efficacy of J2H-1702 for NASHJ2H Biotech
- Blended Learning for Patient Safety Education in Nursing and Midwifery StudentsMardin Artuklu University
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Clinical Research FAQNational Human Genome Research Institute
- Clinical Trial BasicsNational Institutes of Health
- How Clinical Trials WorkNational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Related Issues
- Are Clinical Trials Safe?National Cancer Institute
- Who Pays for Clinical Trials?National Cancer Institute
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Clinical Trials as Topic. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Clinical Trials, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.