Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are experimental scientific studies that seek to advance new knowledge, often about a disease or condition such as AMD. Clinical trials may study new treatments, but they could also study ways to prevent a disease, or even new ways to detect, diagnose, or determine the extent of it.

In terms of treatment, there is generally a phased clinical trial process put in place to test the safety and effectiveness of any new drug or treatment strategy. If a treatment is deemed safe at one stage, it progresses to the next stage until it is finally approved for use in a particular country.

There are a number of reasons you may be interested in finding out more about clinical trials:

• You may wish simply to know about what research is currently being done into AMD, and what new therapies may be on the horizon.
  

• You may want to participate in a trial to have access to a new treatment that is not yet approved for widespread use (keep in mind there is no guarantee you will receive the treatment, since most trials have a 'control' group, and of course the treatment itself may or may not work, since this is what is being studied).

• You may be interested in participating in a clinical trial because you would like to help out with AMD research.
  

Clinical trials into AMD treatments in Canada are not as common as they are in the United States, but they do exist. If you would like to find out about what trials are currently underway, talk to your retinal specialist, contact a research institute or drug manufacturer, or have a look at www.clinicaltrials.gov (contains information about current trials in the United States, but some Canadian trials are also listed).

There is also has a good survey of current AMD clinical trials on the AMD Alliance International website. This page also contains more information about the clinical trial process in general, and questions to ask your clinician - and yourself - if you are considering joining a clinical trial.