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Who Can Participate?
Clinical trials try to enroll
people who are alike in certain ways, depending on the study's
purpose. Every proto col tells who can join that study and spells
out the characteristics that people should have. These are called
eligibility criteria. They may include age, gender, general
health, and cancer risk factors.
Eligibility criteria are
a key part of medical research. They help produce results we
can trust. And after those results are known, the information
can help doctors find out who will be helped by the approach
being studied if it's shown to work. For example, a new drug
may work for people with one type of risk factor but not for
another, or it may work better for men than for women.
Eligibility criteria also
help protect you. They help make sure that if you are likely
to be harmed by something in the study design, you are not exposed
to that risk.
Back
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National Cancer Institute
April 1999
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