Trials compiled by the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, with links to the PDQ database abstracts and the PDQ medical glossary Rare Diseases Clinical Trials Database . The National Institutes of Health tracks clinical trials for less common diseases. A searchable database of AIDS-related trials, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the CDC, the FDA, and the National Library of Medicine. In fact, the antitumor proteins that made the news will not even begin to undergo human trials for another 12 to 18 months. One of the best sources of information on these experiments is the Web.
Some online databases allow patients to target a search by location or disease.
An excellent source for cancer trials is CancerNet , from the National Cancer Institute. Keep in mind that no single site offers a comprehensive list of all trials, so patients should search through as many different sites as possible. See the links in the column to the right or enter clinical trial on a major Internet search engine like Yahoo or Excite to find major databases as well as thousands of links to hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, and universities advertising clinical trials on their own sites. Almost anyone with virtually any type cancer can be a potential candidate for a cancer clinical trial, says Lynn Schuchter, director of the clinical research unit at the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. But patients may be ineligible for reasons such as being too sick to participate or not fitting into particular demographics.