A clinical trial is a research study that involves patients with specific diseases, that is designed to answer specific questions about management or treatment of a disease. Often, clinical trials are used to determine whether a new drug or treatment is both safe and effective. Carefully conducted clinical trials are the best way to prove that treatments work in people.
Choosing to participate in a clinical trial is an important and personal decision. Participants in clinical trials of potential treatments need to realize that the drug under study is not proven to treat their disease. There may be no effect of the drug and there may be side effects that impact patients’ health. Also, many trials include a group of patients who get a sugar pill, or placebo, to compare to the group receiving the active drug. This placebo group is critically important to determine whether or not a drug is effective Neither your doctor nor you will know if you are receiving the placebo or the active drug - that will be kept secret by the central researchers who analyze the data. If a drug is found to be beneficial or harmful at any point during a study like this, all participants will be informed and the drug will either be given to everyone if effective or stopped in everyone if not effective.
It is important to know that participating in a clinical trial is completely voluntary.
The UCSF ILD Program has an active clinical research program and we are currently looking for patients diagnosed with:
- Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Scleroderma-related ILD
- Rheumatoid arthritis-related ILD
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Sarcoidosis
If you are interested in participating in clinical studies or would like to learn more, please click here and go to our clinical trials website for more information.
