What is Randomisation?
Most phase II and phase III trials involve a “randomisation”.
This means that there are at least 2 different groups in the trial, one will receive the new treatment under investigation and the other the standard treatment that they would receive for treatment of their cancer if they were not in the trial.
Patients participating in the clinical trial are allocated to one or the other group at random. This “randomisation” is usually done by a computer. Certain details about you (such as your age, gender or the stage of your cancer) are first entered into the computer.
This is to make sure the different groups are as similar as possible and to attribute the observed clinical effect to the new drug under evaluation.