The words, in plain language.
Clinical trials come with their own vocabulary. None of it is beyond you. Look up any word here — each links to the lessons where it matters.
- Adverse event
- Any unwanted medical problem that happens during a trial, from mild to serious; trials track these closely to keep you safe.
- Arm
- One of the treatment groups in a trial; each arm gets a specific approach so the groups can be compared.
- Biomarker
- A measurable feature of you or your cancer, like a gene change or protein, that can guide treatment and open doors to targeted trials.
- Blinding
- When you and/or the researchers don't know which group you're in, to keep the results unbiased; you're told if a trial is blinded before you join.
- Clinical trial
- A research study that carefully tests whether a new medical approach is safe and helps people.
- Control group
- The group in a trial that gets the current standard treatment, used as a fair yardstick to compare the new approach against.
- ECOG performance status
- A simple 0-to-5 scale doctors use to describe how well you can handle everyday activities.
- Eligibility criteria
- The list of who can and cannot join a trial, set for safety and clear results; not qualifying says nothing about you as a person.
- Informed consent
- The ongoing process of learning what a trial involves so you can freely decide — and you can leave anytime.
- Institutional Review Board (IRB)
- An independent ethics committee that reviews a trial to protect the rights, safety, and well-being of the people in it.
- Metastatic
- Describes cancer that has spread from where it started to other parts of the body.
- Open-label
- A trial where both you and the researchers know exactly which treatment you're getting.
- Phase (of a trial)
- The step a treatment trial is in. Phases run in order (1 → 2 → 3 → 4), and each answers a different question.
- Placebo
- An inactive treatment sometimes used for comparison; in cancer trials it rarely replaces your real treatment, and any use is told to you up front.
- Principal investigator (PI)
- The lead doctor or researcher in charge of running a trial and looking after the safety of everyone in it.
- Protocol
- The detailed written plan for a clinical trial — who can join, exactly what happens, and how results are measured.
- Randomization
- Being assigned to one group or another purely by chance, like a coin flip, so the comparison stays fair.
- Remission
- A decrease in or disappearance of the signs of cancer in your body.
- Standard of care
- The best treatment that experts currently agree on for a given situation — the care you'd normally be offered today.
- Washout period
- A short waiting stretch before a trial starts, so an earlier medicine can clear your system first.