UCSF clinical trials

What You Need to Know About Clinical Trials

Our doctors and researchers are continually pursuing better treatments for both adult and pediatric brain tumors. Browse our list of clinical trials, or request an appointment to find a study that's right for you. 

UCSF Brain Tumor Center Clinical Trials

We are also part of several national consortia to conduct clinical trials at multiple centers across the country. Our involvement in national cooperative clinical trials ensures that our patients have access to the latest techniques and the newest concepts for treatment of brain tumors:

  • Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC): UCSF is the lead institution for PNOC, a network of children's hospitals that perform clinical trials of therapies that are specific to the molecular profiles of a patient's tumor. By testing therapies that interfere with specific cellular pathways or mutations after confirming that a patient’s tumor has those characteristics, PNOC trials aim to provide patients with therapies optimized for their tumor type.
  • Children's Oncology Group (COG): This is a cooperative group combining the efforts of the major pediatric clinical trials groups based in North America to accelerate the search for a cure and prevention of cancer in children and adolescents.

 

How Clinical Trials Work

Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate whether a new investigational treatment is safe and effective to use. Although researchers do not know in advance how effective an investigational treatment may be, new drugs or procedures must have shown some potential for success before a trial is approved. This may include insights from laboratory research, animal studies, or earlier clinical trials. Clinical trials are structured into phases to answer specific questions. 

Learn about clinical trial phases >

 

Who Can Join

Depending on the treatment being investigated, there are certain guidelines, called Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria. Usually, these rules are based on things like age, sex, the type of disease, how far along is the disease, previous treatment, and other medical issues.

Learn about clinical trial criteria >

 

What to Expect

If you are interested in participating in a clinical trial, our team is available to answer questions and find a study that's right for you. 

See an overview of the process >

 


 

Additional Resources

 

Search Other Clinical Trials

 

En Español

Stay Informed