Cancer handbook: How clinical trials are run

For more information on clinical trials, please see our clinical trials page on our Kids Research website.

There are three phases or parts to a clinical trial. These are usually completed one after the other. 

Phase 1

Investigates the side effects of a new drug and determines the optimal dose of that drug

Phase 2

Studies the activity the new drug has against individual tumour types 

Phase 3

Determines how effective the new drug is compared to standard therapy