Palliative Care — Participating in Palliative Care Research
Citation(s)
Chen EK, Riffin C, Reid MC, Adelman R, Warmington M, Mehta SS, Pillemer K Why is high-quality research on palliative care so hard to do? Barriers to improved research from a survey of palliative care researchers. J Palliat Med. 2014 Jul;17(7):782-7. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2013.0589. Epub 2014 Jun 2.
White C, Hardy J What do palliative care patients and their relatives think about research in palliative care?-a systematic review. Support Care Cancer. 2010 Aug;18(8):905-11. doi: 10.1007/s00520-009-0724-1. Epub 2009 Aug 25. Review.
White CD, Hardy JR, Gilshenan KS, Charles MA, Pinkerton CR Randomised controlled trials of palliative care - a survey of the views of advanced cancer patients and their relatives. Eur J Cancer. 2008 Sep;44(13):1820-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2008.05.003. Epub 2008 Jun 10.
Interventional studies are often prospective and are specifically tailored to evaluate direct impacts of treatment or preventive measures on disease.
Observational studies are often retrospective and are used to assess potential causation in exposure-outcome relationships and therefore influence preventive methods.
Expanded access is a means by which manufacturers make investigational new drugs available, under certain circumstances, to treat a patient(s) with a serious disease or condition who cannot participate in a controlled clinical trial.
Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.
Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.
