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Cancer therapy clinical trial enrollment is higher than historical estimates from almost three decades ago, based on findings in a recent study.

A national sample of data from the Commission on Cancer (CoC) revealed that patient participation in clinical trials related to cancer therapy was much higher than historical estimates.

Joseph M Unger, PhD, MS, and colleagues noted that the primary objective of the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, was to evaluate the contemporary estimate of enrollment in cancer treatment trials and other categories of cancer clinical research studies across a varied set of clinical care facilities in the United States.

“National estimates of cancer clinical trial participation are nearly two decades old and have focused solely on enrollment to treatment trials, which does not reflect the willingness of patients to contribute to other elements of clinical research,” Dr. Unger and colleagues wrote. “We determined inclusive, contemporary estimates of clinical trial participation for adults with cancer using a national sample of data from the CoC.”

The researchers evaluated 2013-2017 data from the CoC accreditation program, which includes 1,200 programs and 3,600 sites. These sites account for more than 70% of cancer diagnoses in the US annually.

The overall estimated patient participation rate in cancer treatment trials was 7.1%, higher than historical estimates reported as less than 5% (ranging between 2% and 3%) in the 1990s and early 2000s. The most common program types included community cancer programs (75.7%), followed by academic (non–National Cancer Institute [NCI]-designated) comprehensive cancer programs (15%), integrated network cancer programs (5.8%), and NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center programs (3.6%).

In addition to cancer treatment trial enrollments, estimated participation in various other study types included biorepository (12.9%), registry (7.3%), genetic (3.6%), QOL (2.8%), diagnostic (2.5%), and economic (2.4%) studies.

Treatment trial enrollment was 21.6% at NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers, 5.4% at academic (non–NCI-designated) comprehensive cancer programs, 5.7% at integrated network cancer programs, and 4.1% at community programs.

Overall, participation across all study categories was at least 21.9%. Additionally, if biorepository studies were excluded, results showed that this estimate was reduced to 17.6%, and excluding both biorepository and registry studies further reduced it to 14.3%.

“This study demonstrates the substantial contributions of patients to clinical research, which should be appropriately recognized by researchers and policymakers, since without these contributions, clinical research as currently conducted would not be feasible,” Dr. Unger and colleagues wrote.