Instructions for Finding Clinical Trials at VA Medical Centers

These are the directions on how to search for clinical trials at VA facilities on the NCI’s Web page: http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/digestpage/VA-DOD

To find eligible trials, you or your doctor can search PDQ, the National Cancer Institute's clinical trials database. Review the User's Guide to PDQ Clinical Trials Search for important instructions. Or go directly to the advanced search form to look for active trials underway at VA facilities. Here's how:

• Scroll down on the advanced search form until you see the search option, "Hospital/Institution."
• Click on the link to the right labeled "browse list".
• Select the letter "V".
• From the resulting list, select one or more VA facilities by clicking on the box to the left of the facility name.
• When you're done choosing, click on "select checked" at the bottom of the list. This will enter your selections in the Hospital/Institutions box on the advanced search form.
• From here, you can choose other search criteria or execute your search by choosing "search now".

Instead of searching for all clinical trials underway at certain VA facilities, you may want to start by searching PDQ for clinical trials of particular relevance to you. The User's Guide tells you how. Then, once you display a trial's full description, click on the link at the top that says "Study Sites and Contacts." Only when a VA facility is listed will the trial be covered under the VA agreement.

The NCI's Cancer Information Service (CIS), at 1-800-4-CANCER, can also search this database for you.