All clinical trials have eligibility requirements that patients must meet in order to participate in the trial. These requirements vary for each trial of each drug, depending on what drug is being tested and what questions the scientists hope to answer by conducting the clinical trial. Eligibility requirements are necessary for reliable results to be produced from the tests.
For each clinical trial, the scientists determine what kind of patients they want to participate in the trial. These requirements can include things like the age, gender and race of the patient, the specific type of the disease and what stage it is in, what treatments the patient has received in the past and other medical conditions of the patient. Some clinical trials require participants who are ill and have a disease while others need participants who are perfectly healthy. Who is eligible to participate in a clinical trial simply depends on the purpose of the trial.
It is necessary for a person to meet all the eligibility requirements for them to participate in a clinical trial. These eligibility requirements are not in place to exclude anyone personally from a clinical trial. Rather, they are created to ensure the safety of everyone participating in the trial. Eligibility requirements are necessary so the scientists conducting the clinical trial can work to answer the questions they set out to.