Ovarian Colorado

Information for Patients

• Overview
  • What are the Ovaries?
  • What is Ovarian Cancer?
  • What is Your Risk?
  • Warning Signs
  • Diagnosis
• Genetics
  • Family History
  • Genetic Testing
• Your Health Care Team
• Treatment
  • Types of Treatments
  • Clinical Trials
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Clinical Trials

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) describes clinical trials as, “carefully designed research studies that involve people.” New drug regimens for the treatment of ovarian cancer are tested on patients in the hopes of finding better ways treat the disease or to prevent recurrence.

These new treatments or trials must go through three phases of testing. The NCI describes them as:
   
Phase I
Tests to see if the treatment is safe; typically enrolls less than 50 people with different types of cancer

Phase II
Tests to see if the treatment works against ovarian cancer; typically enrolls around 100 women

Phase III
Tests the new treatment against best existing treatment; enrolls hundreds to thousands of women