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Why Participate in a Clinical Trial?

An advantage to participating in a clinical trial is that the patient receives a therapeutic approach that has been mapped out and reviewed by a team of investigators who specialize in the disease being studied. Therapy given outside of the context of a clinical trial is at the discretion of the treating physician and may not be reviewed by experts in a particular disease. For many illnesses there is an accepted treatment that has been shown through the clinical trials process to be the standard of care for that disease -- meaning it is safe and effective. Unfortunately in the case of relapsed leukemia, we do not have a standard treatment that is highly effective for essentially all patients. Participation in clinical trials allows patients access to state-of-the-art treatment and to also have the possibility of being among the first to benefit from a new and more effective treatment.