Overview
Clinical cancer trials are prospective research studies that evaluate new approaches to the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer in human participants. They form the essential bridge between laboratory discovery and clinical practice, testing whether candidate drugs, biologics, devices, or strategies are safe and effective before they enter routine use. Therapeutic trials are conventionally organized into phases: early-phase studies assess safety, tolerability, and dosing in small groups; intermediate phases evaluate efficacy and further define safety; and large comparative phases test the new intervention against the current standard of care, often through randomization. Beyond treatment, clinical cancer trials also address prevention, screening, diagnostics, and supportive and quality-of-life endpoints. Their scientific validity depends on clearly defined objectives, appropriate participant selection, control of bias through randomization and blinding where feasible, predefined outcome measures, and rigorous statistical analysis, all conducted under ethical oversight and informed consent. Trials increasingly incorporate molecular biomarkers and targeted and immunological agents, matching therapies to tumor characteristics and supporting biomarker-driven and personalized approaches. The interpretation of results requires attention to endpoints, generalizability, and the balance of benefit and harm. As the principal means of generating reliable evidence in oncology, clinical cancer trials underpin advances in cancer care and the responsible introduction of new diagnostics and therapies into practice.
Research published in this journal
9 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
How this research is being cited
The 9 articles above have been cited 15 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
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2025 · Discover Oncology
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2025 · Discover Oncology
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CFTR-mediated monocyte/macrophage dysfunction revealed by cystic fibrosis proband-parent comparisons2022 · JCI Insight
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CFTR-mediated monocyte/macrophage dysfunction revealed by cystic fibrosis proband-parent comparisons2022 · JCI Insight
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2021 · medRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
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2021 · Marine Drugs
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2021 · Marine Drugs
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CFTR-mediated monocyte-macrophage dysfunction revealed by cystic fibrosis proband-parent comparisonsX. Zhang et al. · 2021 · medRxiv
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Clinical Cancer Trials, linking to each citing work.