Welcome to our clinical trials space
This forum category is a space for our blood cancer community to talk about clinical trials, to share your own experiences, learn from others, or simply ask a question. However you’re using it, you’re welcome here.
Arrived here from our Blood Cancer UK website? Click here to return to the site and carry on reading.
What is a clinical trial?
Before any new medicine or treatment is given to people, it’s tested thoroughly in a laboratory to make sure it looks safe. When experts believe it’s ready, the next step is to test it in a clinical trial.
The goal of most clinical trials is to find out:
- Is the new drug or treatment safe for people?
- Does it work and is it as effective, or better, than the treatments we already have?
If a trial is successful, the new drug may become the standard treatment for everyone.
Clinical trials can also be used to:
- see if an existing approved drug or treatment for one disease can successfully treat a different disease
- test new combinations of current approved drugs or treatments
- test different ways of giving treatment, such as new medical equipment
- understand more about blood cancer and how it affects us
- learn more about symptoms and side effects, and how to manage them
What’s on our Blood Cancer UK website
Alongside this forum, our website has a whole section dedicated to blood cancer clinical trials. Here’s what you’ll find:
Clinical Trials home- your starting point for everything below.
- Understand what a clinical trial is Why clinical trials matter, how they actually work, and how they’re kept safe, a good place to start if trials are new to you.
- Decide if a trial is right for you The benefits and risks of taking part, questions worth asking your doctor, and answers to common worries. Includes David and Johanna’s stories of deciding to join a Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia ('CLL') clinical trial.
- Find a clinical trial How our Clinical Trials Navigation Service- a team of specialist nurses, can help you search for trials, or find tips for searching yourself. Read how Ed (Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia ('CLL')) and Rachel (myeloma) used the Navigation Service to explore their options.
- If you’re taking part in a trial What to expect once you’re on a trial, and real experiences from Jane and Nicky, including how a Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia ('CLL') trial led to Nicky’s remission.
- Keep up with blood cancer research Sign up to our quarterly newsletter to stay informed even if a trial isn’t right for you now. You can also read about our work to improve equity of access to clinical trials, and Shibu’s story.
Join the conversation
Whether you’re just curious, weighing up whether a trial is right for you, or already taking part, we’d love to hear from you. Ask a question, share what’s helped you, or just say hello. 
Have a question in mind? You can create a new post in this category, or join in below.
I’m on the RADAR trial, I had my bone marrow biopsy yesterday, on day 92 post stem cell transplant, I am now waiting for my results on 5th October, depending on wether I am MRD- or MRD+ I will either go onto isatuximab for 12 cycles then randomised to carry on treatment or come off and be monitored, if I’m MRD + I am randomised into 1 of 4 arms of the trial, and that’s chosen by a computer and effectively what ‘slot’ needs to be filled to make each arm equal at the specific time, THAT I find very nerve wracking! So ahead of me is a few weeks of decisions, getting back on to treatment, and finding out how it effects me, it’s been fantastic not having any hospital appointments and checks for a few weeks, so I’m going to enjoy the next few weeks as fully as possible, starting with my 102 day old party on the 26th 
