Insurance companies were willing to pay for it in about half of the patients that I personally was involved with. The other half had to pay out of pocket. Trials of supportive therapies Not every cancer clinical trial is aimed squarely at finding a cure for the disease. Many clinical trials are intended to find treatments to alleviate some of the consequences of cancer or the side effects of some cancer treatments. These are generally referred to as supportive therapies.
Many chemotherapeutic regimens cause nausea, for example.
Pain is an unfortunate consequence of many types of cancer. If none of the standard analgesics are working well for you, you may be able to find a clinical trial for new analgesics. There are many other examples. A recent search of the NCI's PDQ database yielded a list of 105 trials of supportive therapies. Even if you're satisfed with your current cancer treatment, it's worth taking a look at the list of supportive therapy trials to see if there's a trial involving one of the symptoms at the periphery of your disease.