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If you have a serious illness, you may want to consider a course of treatment that your doctor is not likely to offer: a clinical trial. The thousands of clinical trials going on at any one time can provide patients with potentially life-saving treatments that are not available with standard care.

Often conducted by the nation's top experts, these research studies help determine whether promising new drugs, medical devices, therapies and vaccines are safe and effective for humans.Thanks to the Internet, finding a clinical trial is easy. Several Web sites provide guidance on questions to ask and issues to think about. But chances are you'll be on your own in pursuing this route because most doctors don't consider a clinical trial as a treatment possibility.

For example, only 5 percent of cancer patients enter a clinical trial. And although about 5,000 clinical trials are ongoing for cancer alone, only about 10 percent of newly diagnosed patients realize that a trial may be available.

Misconceptions also dissuade prospective participants. For instance, many worry that trials only test experimental drugs; in fact, many drugs that have already been approved for other conditions are tested for new uses. Some believe that patients chosen for the control group will receive only a placebo.

Experts say that these patients usually receive the standard treatment; rarely are patients given only a placebo, and the researcher will notify all participants of that possibility before the study begins.

Don't wait until all other treatments fail before seeking out a study. Thousands of trials recruit patients in the early stages of a disease. Several trials, for example, recruit individuals with early dementia, while some cancer patients turn to a clinical trial for their first treatment.

If you're 60 or older, you may well find a trial for your diagnosed condition. In 2005, drug companies were testing more than 900 medicines to combat diseases of aging, including Alzheimer's and sleep disorders, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Start with ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The site provides information on more than 31,000 current studies that are using human volunteers. Type in your community and a condition in the search engine, and you'll find participation requirements and contact information.

Each trial recruits patients based on age, gender, the type and stage of a disease, treatment history and other medical conditions. If you appear eligible, ask your doctor to help you weigh the risks and benefits of a specific experimental treatment.

You and your doctor should study the trial's "protocol," the plan for how a trial is to be conducted. The protocol, which may run to dozens of pages, will describe the study's goals and provide information about the treatment or drug being tested, any previous results and the study's length.

The study's informed-consent process will also include information on risks and benefits. Speak to members of the research team and ask about their previous experience in conducting clinical trials. Ask the researchers what they would do if your condition worsened under their care. And, remember, you can get out of a clinical trial at any time.

Make sure you understand the level of commitment. Some trials require frequent visits over months or years. Other may run a few weeks and be at a nearby physician's office.

Also ask about the costs, including any out-of-pocket expenses. Your insurance may pick up the costs of tests and treatments that would have been part of your standard plan. Sometimes, researchers will pay for the new treatments or special testing. Medicare covers routine costs connected to most government-sponsored trials.

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