As soon as possible after diagnosis, parents sit down with the medical team to discuss treatment options. If your child is being treated at a research hospital, the first discussion is usually about standard treatment and a clinical trial, if a trial is open and your child qualifies. Parents are often very conflicted about choosing a treatment.

The choice to opt for standard treatment or a clinical trial is a strictly personal one, but parents should only make it after they are certain they understand the implications of each path. The doctor is legally and ethically bound to alert parents to the full range of medically appropriate treatment options available to their child and to help the parents understand what each option entails before asking them for written consent (and older children and teens to provide assent) to begin a particular treatment plan. The doctor may recommend a particular treatment option that he believes to be in the best interest of the child, but he may not coerce or deceive the parents into approving a treatment. Once the parents have consented to standard treatment or a clinical trial, the doctor is obligated to abide by their decision.