How to find a clinical trial for cancer (step-by-step)

A clinical trial is a research study testing a new cancer therapy, a new combination of therapies, a screening approach, or a supportive-care intervention. For some cancers — especially rare or advanced disease — trials are the most direct path to therapies that aren’t yet approved but are showing real promise.

Here’s how to find a trial you might qualify for, without drowning in jargon.

Step 1 — Get the specifics of your diagnosis from your oncologist

Before searching, you need four pieces of information:

1. Exact cancer type and subtype. “Breast cancer” is not enough — is it ER/PR+? HER2+ or HER2-? Invasive ductal, lobular, triple-negative?
2. Stage and recent scans. AJCC stage at diagnosis, plus the most recent imaging report.
3. Biomarkers / genetic results. BRCA, EGFR, KRAS, PD-L1, HER2, microsatellite instability (MSI), tumor mutational burden (TMB) — whichever were tested.
4. What treatments you’ve already had. Many trials require you to have tried (or explicitly not tried) specific prior therapies.

Your oncologist should have all of this in your chart. Ask for a copy of your pathology report and any molecular testing results before you start searching.

Step 2 — Start at ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov is the U.S. National Library of Medicine registry of clinical studies. It’s the authoritative source — every U.S. oncology trial must be registered here. Search by condition, recruitment status (“Recruiting”), and location.

The site is comprehensive but not easy to navigate. Two tips:

• Filter by “Recruiting” status — otherwise you’ll see completed and not-yet-recruiting trials that aren’t options right now.
• Filter by distance from your ZIP code to get the trial sites near you.

We’ve built a simpler cancer-type-specific browser at /trials/ that uses the same ClinicalTrials.gov data, pre-filtered to active recruiting oncology trials by cancer type and state.

Step 3 — Talk to your oncologist about matches

Don’t contact trial sites cold. Bring the NCT numbers (every trial has an NCTxxxxxxxx ID) to your oncologist and ask:

• “Do you think I’d qualify for any of these?”
• “Would you refer me to this trial?”
• “Is there a trial at our institution I should consider first?”

Your oncologist knows your history and can quickly flag non-starters. They can also often contact the trial PI directly on your behalf.

Step 4 — Consider NCI-designated cancer centers

The 71 NCI-designated cancer centers run hundreds of trials each. If there’s no relevant trial in your area, a second opinion at an NCI center often surfaces options you didn’t know about. Most offer virtual second opinions — you don’t have to travel.

Step 5 — Understand eligibility criteria

Every trial has inclusion criteria (what you must have) and exclusion criteria (what you must not have). Common eligibility gates:

• Prior lines of therapy — many trials require 1, 2, or 3+ prior failed treatments
• Performance status (ECOG or Karnofsky) — a rough measure of how much you can do on your own
• Organ function — adequate kidney, liver, and bone marrow function measured by specific lab values
• No active second malignancy — some trials exclude patients with another active cancer
• Washout periods — time since last chemo, radiation, or surgery

If you don’t meet every criterion but are close, ask the trial coordinator. Some PIs will make exceptions case-by-case if the spirit of the criterion is met.

Step 6 — Ask the right questions at screening

When you contact a trial site, ask:

• What’s the time commitment — how many visits, over what period?
• What’s reimbursed (travel, lodging, caregiver support)?
• If I’m randomized, what’s the control arm?
• What happens when the trial ends?
• Can I leave if something goes wrong?
• Who will I see — the PI, or study coordinators?

These answers shape whether a trial is realistic for your life, not just medically appropriate.

When to contact a patient advocate

If you have a rare cancer, a complex genomic profile, or you’re running into dead ends, disease-specific advocacy organizations can help. Examples include the Lustgarten Foundation (pancreatic), LUNGevity (lung), the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), and Susan G. Komen (breast). Many have trial-navigation services.