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" It&amp;#039;s one of everyone&amp;#039;s worst fears, realized: Your doctor hands you a scary, possibly fatal, diagnosis. Suddenly, the future is uncertain. What treatments are available? Can you afford them? Can your family survive the strain? And is it worth adding one more unknown to the list in hopes of improving your fate?  That&amp;#039;s what participating in a clinical trial can mean. These studies, funded by drug or device manufacturers or the government, test new treatments on volunteers to see if they&amp;#039;re safe and effective. Treatment plans must be approved by an independent safety panel, with oversight by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Office for Human Research Protections, and subjects must be fully informed of potential hazards. Still, they may endure grueling side effects, or heartbreak if the treatments don&amp;#039;t work. But people who enroll have decided it&amp;#039;s worth the risk to receive the cutting-edge care these trials promise \u2014 and, hopefully, a last chance at a cure or a better quality of life. Meet four women who went for it. Battling the MS That Killed Her Mother &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not terrified of the future any more.&amp;quot; \u2014 JENNIFER BALL  Jennifer Ball&amp;#039;s right arm first went numb in February 2004, fueling her worst fear: that she&amp;#039;d be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Two years earlier, her mom, Lorraine, had died in a nursing home after decades of disability from MS, a nervous-system disease that affects about 400,000 Americans and affects twice as many women as men.  After an MRI showed that Jennifer, a 33-year-old nurse from Conneaut Lake, PA, did have MS, she plunged into a deep depression. She looked at her daughter, Megan, then 19 months old, and thought, How can I take care of you? Jennifer had spent her own childhood tending to her mother, who&amp;#039;d been wheelchair-bound and unable to feed or dress herself. She told her husband, David, 33, that he should leave her. He replied, &amp;quot;We took vows, honey, and we&amp;#039;ll get through this together.&amp;quot;  Jennifer&amp;#039;s doctor assured her that she could handle the disease with the help of medication. He suggested a clinical trial testing a new dosage of an MS drug called Betaseron, which was FDA-approved at the time at a lower dose. Participants would receive either the approved treatment or the higher dose to see if taking more of the drug boosted its benefits. They&amp;#039;d be compared with a third group of patients treated with a different MS drug. One major perk of the study was that Jennifer would get the pricey medication and doctor&amp;#039;s visits for free.  Jennifer decided she&amp;#039;d join the trial \u2014 but first, she and David wanted to have another baby. Jennifer&amp;#039;s symptoms abated during her pregnancy, as is sometimes the case for MS sufferers; their daughter, Abbigail Grace, was born two days after Christmas in 2004. Soon after, Jennifer developed numbness and tingling in her arms and legs. She breast-fed for four months, then entered the trial, which meant injecting herself every other day with Betaseron. The drug caused headaches, achiness, and nausea. Jennifer still had occasional bouts of numbness and tingling, but the disease did not worsen.  After the study ended in April of this year, Jennifer stayed on Betaseron. But because trial participants wound up doing just as well on the standard dose as on the higher one she&amp;#039;d been receiving, she switched to the lower dose, which has fewer side effects. (The higher dose was not ultimately submitted for FDA approval.) Jennifer&amp;#039;s health plan pays all but $50 of the drug&amp;#039;s $1,200-a-month cost. So far, the treatment has stopped her MS in its tracks. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not a cure, so I&amp;#039;ll always have symptoms that come and go,&amp;quot; she says. But they remain mild. In some ways, Jennifer misses the trial. &amp;quot;It was comforting to be able to call the study nurse as often as I wanted,&amp;quot; she says. But life since the trial is sweet. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not terrified of the future anymore,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;When my mom got MS, there weren&amp;#039;t any effective treatments, and now \u2014 because of clinical trials \u2014 there are several.&amp;quot; Relief from a Debilitating \u2014 and Embarrassing \u2014 Bowel Disease &amp;quot;I spent my 20s and 30s paralyzed by my disease.&amp;quot; \u2014 BECKY PACE  For decades, Becky Pace, 42, could barely leave the house, thanks to ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic inflammation of the colon&amp;#039;s inner lining, which afflicts about 700,000 Americans. Symptoms include severe abdominal pain and frequent, sometimes uncontrollable diarrhea. &amp;quot;I spent most of my 20s and 30s in flares,&amp;quot; says the Colorado Springs, CO, mom of four. &amp;quot;Sometimes I&amp;#039;d be running to the bathroom 20 times a day. It was miserable and embarrassing. When I took my kids to the park, I had to bring a potty in the car.&amp;quot; Over the years she&amp;#039;d tried several medications, none of which had helped much. By 2004, she was taking 16 pills daily and still suffering frequent flares.  Then Becky&amp;#039;s mother told her about an announcement she&amp;#039;d seen regarding a clinical trial for UC patients. The drug being tested, called Lialda, allowed patients to take only two pills a day. And volunteers would get free medical care \u2014 a major plus, since Becky and her husband, Terry, who owns an auto body repair shop, have no health insurance.  Becky talked it over with friends and family. &amp;quot;Some people think you&amp;#039;ll be treated like a lab rat,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;But I have friends who have had positive experiences in trials, so I decided it was worth taking a risk.&amp;quot; Compared with her existing symptoms, the potential side effects \u2014 including headaches and gassiness \u2014 seemed manageable. After filling out an online questionnaire and undergoing a colon exam, Becky was accepted into the trial in July 2006. For the first eight-week phase, she wasn&amp;#039;t told whether she was on Lialda or a placebo. &amp;quot;Within a few days I knew it must be the real thing,&amp;quot; Becky says. &amp;quot;I was sleeping all night instead of getting up with diarrhea.&amp;quot;  Over the next eight weeks, all participants received Lialda. After that, they were randomly assigned to take either two pills once a day or one pill in the morning and the other later in the day, for 12 months. Becky was in the once-a-day group. To her amazement, her disease went into total remission. (Most other subjects on her regimen saw the same result.) &amp;quot;It was great to go out without always looking for the nearest bathroom,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I cried when the trial ended \u2014 I was scared that my symptoms would come back after losing access to the medication.&amp;quot;  She remained in remission, however. And when Lialda was FDA-approved in January 2007, she still didn&amp;#039;t need it. To celebrate her freedom, Becky recently went on a vacation to California \u2014 and left the potty at home. &amp;quot;I finally feel normal. I&amp;#039;m so glad I took the risk to find a treatment that worked.&amp;quot; Fighting Cancer With All She Had &amp;quot;Without clinical trials, I might not be here.&amp;quot; \u2014 CYNTHIA KINSELLA When Cynthia Kinsella, then a real estate agent in Dalton, MA, awoke in a hospital after an August 2004 bladder biopsy, no one would look her in the eye. The urologist who&amp;#039;d performed the biopsy \u2014 scheduled because Cynthia was having frequent, burning urination and had noticed blood in her urine \u2014 had found invasive bladder cancer. Cynthia, then 47, left the hospital in shock as her husband, Edward, tried to console her. Bladder cancer strikes 17,580 American women a year; the invasive form is the most lethal. Cynthia went online to find out what she&amp;#039;d be facing. She clicked on the standard treatment: radical cystectomy (surgical removal of the bladder and surrounding organs, including the uterus, ovaries, and back wall of the vagina). &amp;quot;I started to scream, but I couldn&amp;#039;t breathe because I was so terrified,&amp;quot; says Cynthia. &amp;quot;Edward held me and comforted me.&amp;quot; The urologist advised surgery followed by chemotherapy. &amp;quot;I kept thinking there must be a better way,&amp;quot; Cynthia says. Finally, she read online about a clinical trial of a bladder-sparing therapy at the Claire and John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital. The study involved intensive courses of pelvic radiation and equally intensive courses of chemotherapy. Cynthia and Edward met with the center&amp;#039;s director, Donald Kaufman, M.D., three weeks later. He explained that participants would receive one of two drug combinations, each one consisting of two kinds of chemotherapy. &amp;quot;All I heard was that there might be a miracle,&amp;quot; Cynthia says. Her treatment began in October 2004, with radiation twice a day and low-dose chemotherapy three times a week. Her hair fell out, and she endured severe diarrhea, fatigue, and confusion. For the first two months, Cynthia and Edward stayed near the hospital during the week to spare Cynthia the exhausting five-hour round trip from their home. Because the regimen was so arduous, Cynthia also took a leave of absence from her job. Later, she received full-strength chemo in five-hour sessions, leaving her legs so weak she could barely walk.  Cynthia completed her chemo in May 2005. In March 2006, she was rushed to the hospital with heavy bleeding, triggered by the tenacious cancer. The experimental treatment had failed. &amp;quot;I was so disappointed,&amp;quot; says Cynthia. &amp;quot;I kept thinking, I went through all that suffering for nothing.&amp;quot; Cynthia&amp;#039;s surgeons removed her bladder but were able to preserve her vagina. They used a section of her bowel to create an internal pouch that collects urine. Cynthia drains it every four to six hours by inserting a catheter into an opening in her belly button. &amp;quot;The first time I did it, I cried,&amp;quot; she admits. &amp;quot;But I had to learn to deal with it. Eventually, it became my new normal.&amp;quot;  Two years later, Cynthia, who is now the president and CEO of the American Bladder Cancer Society, remains cancer-free. She has no regrets about entering the study, and continued on as Kaufman&amp;#039;s patient after it ended. &amp;quot;If I hadn&amp;#039;t gotten state-of-the-art care through the trial, I might not be here at all,&amp;quot; she says. The treatment she received is still under investigation. Rewiring Her Brain to Recover From a Stroke &amp;quot;I Just wanted to be a regular mom.&amp;quot; \u2014 CRICKET CARPENTER Cricket Carpenter was at home in Tucson, AZ, in April 2000 when she suddenly lost sensation in the left side of her body and tumbled to the floor. Incredibly, at 31, she&amp;#039;d suffered a stroke. Afterward, Cricket had to learn to walk all over again. She was also plagued with shoulder pain and stiffness in her left arm. Even after two years of physical therapy, &amp;quot;my hand was almost useless,&amp;quot; she says. Doctors held out little hope of improvement. Cricket&amp;#039;s life did go on \u2014 she wed her partner, Raymond, and had a son, Sebastian. &amp;quot;I was always worried that I&amp;#039;d drop him,&amp;quot; she says. Then her doctor told her about a clinical trial at the University of Arizona \u2014 Tucson for a device that might give Cricket her arm back. Implanting the device, called the Renova Cortical Stimulation System, required brain surgery. &amp;quot;There were certainly risks,&amp;quot; says Cricket. &amp;quot;I could be left with brain damage, or die. But the doctor told me that complications were very unlikely.&amp;quot;  In February 2003, neurologists went into Cricket&amp;#039;s brain, placing an electrode atop part of the cortex that controls arm and hand movement. The electrode was connected to a small stimulator implanted near Cricket&amp;#039;s collarbone. Every day she did hand exercises for three hours while the stimulator sent painless electrical pulses to her brain. Four weeks went by with no change. Then Cricket noticed that her hand wasn&amp;#039;t quite as clenched. Over the next few weeks she gained greater control over her fingers. After three months, the stimulator was removed.  Eight years after the stroke, Cricket still has shoulder pain and stiffness. (Because most subjects had similar outcomes, the device wasn&amp;#039;t submitted for FDA approval.) While she&amp;#039;s disappointed she didn&amp;#039;t see better results, she&amp;#039;s glad she joined the study: &amp;quot;It gave me my hand back,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;If a friend wanted to enroll in a trial, I&amp;#039;d say, &amp;#039;Go for it.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; HOW TO FIND A CLINICAL TRIAL You might consider volunteering for a study if you have a disease and standard treatments aren&amp;#039;t working, if you have a condition for which there&amp;#039;s no cure, or if you&amp;#039;re at high risk of developing a serious health problem due to family history or other factors, says Gary Lichtenstein, M.D., a University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine professor and researcher who has conducted more than 50 trials. First, ask your doctor if he or she knows of any clinical trials that might help you. You can also check out these resources:   Clinicaltrials.gov has a database of more than 65,000 trials. At centerwatch.com,  you can search for studies and get e-mail notifications when new trials for your condition are listed.  Patient advocacy organizations such as the National Multiple Sclerosis Society or the American Diabetes Association often list trials on their Website or have local chapters that can tell you about trials. If you have cancer, call 800-4-CANCER or go to the National Cancer Institute&amp;#039;s site, cancer.gov,  to find studies. It&amp;#039;s sometimes possible to get experimental medications without enrolling in a study, says Lichtenstein. &amp;quot;Have your doctor contact the drug company&amp;quot; \u2014 or call on your own. If a potentially life-saving therapy shows promise in clinical trials, the FDA may permit &amp;quot;expanded access,&amp;quot; allowing patients to get the medication straight from the manufacturer.  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<http://www.redbookmag.com/body/health-fitness/advice/a4648/clinical-trials-that-work/>