Each study is designed to answer scientific questions and to find new and better ways to help patients.
Clinical trials help us find out if a promising new treatment is safe and effective for patients. During a trial, more information is gained about a new treatment, its risks, and how well it may or may not work. The search for viable treatments begins with basic research in laboratory and animal studies.
The best results of that research are then used in patient studies, hopefully leading to findings that may help many people. Before a new treatment is tried with patients, it is carefully studied in the laboratory.