Randomization is part of clinical trial design that helps researchers prevent accidental bias in the trial results meaning that no outside factors shifted the findings one way or another. Many phase II and III trials are randomized.

You can’t choose which treatment you receive in a randomized trial, but metastatic breast cancer trials are designed to keep participants safe, from guaranteeing you get at least the standard treatment for your type of breast cancer, to more frequent doctor’s visits and imaging scans.

To learn more about how randomization works and why it’s important, see below.

What Is Randomization And Why Is It Important?

• Randomization and Bias in Cancer Clinical Trials This article and simple infographic from the National Cancer Institute explain basic randomization. On the right-hand side of the page, you’ll also find an animated video explaining how randomization works and why it’s a crucial part of study design.

Randomization May Be Different In Different Trials

Clinical trials can be designed differently from one another. The type of randomization used often depends on the trial design. It’s important to ask how the trial is designed, and how you’ll be randomized, before you enroll. Learn more about different trial designs and randomization methods below.

• Simple Randomization (Video) Experts from the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England, illustrate simple randomization.
• Blocked and Stratified Randomization (Video)  Experts from the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England, illustrate blocked and stratified randomization.
• Clinical Trial Design: Parallel and Crossover Studies In trials called crossover studies, participants in both arms receive all of the treatments available.
• Randomized Controlled Trials and Factorial Design (Video)  Using examples based in child development, this video goes a step further to explain factorial design.
• Randomization, Stratification, Blinding BC Cancer outlines how blinding, the process of masking which treatment a trial participant gets, and stratification, the process that balances participants in each trial arm, interact with randomization to get the cleanest trial results possible.

What If I’m Worried About Randomization?

• Feelings About Being Allocated (Randomized) To A Treatment Group Healthtalk.org interviews multiple participants of randomized clinical trials about their understanding of and feelings about randomization, what they did when they had preferences or encountered uncertainty during randomization.
• Myths & Facts In a metastatic breast cancer trial you always get at least the standard treatment never a placebo alone. Read about this myth and others at BreastCancerTrials.org.
• About Your Rights Trials are designed to keep you as safe as possible. As a participant you have the right to ask questions and to leave the trial at any time, for any reason. Read about your participant rights at BreastCancerTrials.org.

See also: Clinical Trial Primer and How to Find Metastatic Breast Cancer Clinical Trial