Clinical Trial Results
Clinical Trial Results
Clinical trial results for ovarian cancer can take a long time to become available to the public. This is because trials need to collect and analyse a lot of data before any recommendations can safely be made.
Research teams monitor participants over a long period of time to see how a new treatment works in comparison to the current standard treatment.
The team also needs to look at:
side effects
the impact on participants’ long-term health
how the treatment affects overall survival rates.
This process can take many years, and sometimes further trials are needed to accurately and safely confirm the findings before a treatment can be made available to the wider community.
Researchers often explain clinical trials using specific terms like ‘endpoints’. This refers to the goals the trial is trying to measure, such as:
Overall survival – how long someone lives after diagnosis or starting treatment
Progression-free survival – how long someone will live without the cancer worsening or progressing.
Cancer shrinkage – whether the cancer has decreased in size.
Quality of life (QoL) – a person’s overall wellbeing, including physical, emotional and social factors that affect their daily life and happiness. These may also be referred to as Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) or Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs).
These factors help researchers decide if a treatment is effective.
Sometimes the treatment may not work better than the current standard treatment. These results can still be helpful for doctors to learn more about ovarian cancer and improve future treatments.
Factors that affect how quickly the researchers can gain trial results can include:
the type of cancer being tested
the size of the trial
the type of trial (prevention, treatment, screening trials)
how long it takes to find the right amount of people to take part in the trial
how long treatment lasts
Trial results can take anywhere from one year to 10 years, but it is usually between 2 and 5 years.
In later-phase trials (phases 3 and 4), which are generally large trials, recruitment can take a long time and so the results take longer to appear.
Trials looking at screening for a cancer or prevention can take years to gain results as a long time is needed to see which groups of people go on to develop cancer.
How do I find results of clinical trials?
If you want to find out the results of a clinical trial you took part in, first ask your treating doctor. They should be able to find the results for you and provide a simple summary of the outcomes.
Otherwise, an excellent place to start is ClinicalTrials.gov {LINK www.clinicaltrials.gov], which is an American website providing details on worldwide clinical trials, including those in Australia, and their results. You can search for trials and their results by disease type, location and more.
If you live in Australia and want to find clinical trial results for ovarian cancer, there are several other reliable resources you can use:
ANZCTR (Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry) [LINK www. anzctr.org.au]
A registry of clinical trials conducted in Australia and New Zealand. It includes trial results and information about ongoing studies.
Australian Cancer Trials [LINK australiancancertrials.gov.au]
Detailed information on cancer clinical trials available in Australia, including results when available.
Cancer Council Australia LINK WWW.cancer.org.au]
Information about clinical trials and research updates relevant to Australians, including trial results.
PubMed [LINK WWW. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]
A database of health research that includes clinical trial results. You can search for specific studies or cancer types.
Scientific journals
Many provide reliable, peer-reviewed information on the latest cancer treatment research and clinical trial outcomes. Some journals offer free access to selected studies, while others require a payment. If you are linked to an Australian university or library, you may be able to access articles for free.
A note on scientific journals:
Not all journals are reliable and peer reviewed. Some contain poorly researched and poorly evaluated information. If you find an article about a clinical trial and want to verify the information, please talk to your doctor. See this article about predatory journals, a really big problem.
Reputable cancer journals where you will find trial results include:
Research papers are usually not written in plain English. Most people find the medical and scientific terms hard to understand.
Some websites offer a simplified summary of the published papers.
A couple of terms that may help you understand things better:
Peer review is when experts in the area being studied read over a research study before it is published.
They check if the methods used and results appear valid and trustworthy. This ensures the researchers are presenting a well-designed study and their conclusions are based on solid methods.
Systematic review is when researchers carefully analyse and compare the results from many different studies on a single topic.
A systematic review helps to show which treatment works the best. You can read more about systematic reviews at the Cochrane Collaboration.
You can also ask your treatment doctor or specialist nurse to help you understand trial results. Or call our Helpline on 1300 660 334 and speak with one of our ovarian cancer nurses. The helpline is available Monday to Friday, 9 am – 5 pm. You can also email Ovarian Cancer Australia at support@ovariancancer.net.au.
