Doctors conduct clinical trials to learn the effectiveness and side effects of new treatments.
In some clinical trials, all patients receive the new treatment. In other trials, doctors compare different therapies by giving the new treatment to one group of patients and the standard therapy to another group. People who take part in these studies have the first chance to benefit from treatments that have shown promise in earlier research. They also make an important contribution to medical science. Doctors are studying new ways of treating bladder cancer with radiation therapy, chemotherapy, biological therapies, and ways of combining various types of treatment.