Less Than Half of Cancer Trials Had Results Reported Within 1 Year of Completion

In an analysis of more than 10,000 cancer clinical trials, less than half had results reported within 1 year of trial completion.

Within 3 years, about 72% of trials had results reported, most commonly on ClinicalTrials.gov. These findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

For this study, researchers evaluated 10,442 cancer trials that were registered on ClinicalTrials.gov and completed between 2008 and 2021. The researchers assessed whether the trial results were published in a peer-reviewed journal, posted on ClinicalTrials.gov, or presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meetings from 2008 to 2021.

Within 1 year of completion, 6.8% of trials had results published in a journal, 17.9% had results posted on ClinicalTrials.gov, and 18.3% had results presented at an ASCO meeting.

At 3 years, 10.5% of trials had results published in a journal, 40.0% had results published on ClinicalTrials.gov, and 21.9% had results presented at an ASCO meeting.

The percentage of trials that had results reported via any of the 3 platforms was 36.3% at 1 year and 56.1% at 3 years. The percentage of trials that had results reported via all 3 platforms was 0.4% at 1 year and 1.2% at 3 years.

At 1 year, the percentage of trials that had results reported on at least 1 platform was similar between industry-funded trials and trials funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — 43.2% and 41.8%, respectively (P =.51).

However, at 3 years, trials supported by the NIH were more likely than industry-funded trials to have results reported — 73.4% and 62.7%, respectively (P <.001).

“Our findings echo previous studies on clinical research reporting, suggesting insufficient progress by investigators and peer-reviewers in addressing key barriers, such as prioritizing reporting of all results, including inconclusive findings,” the researchers wrote. “More efforts are needed to improve access to clinical trial results to advance patient care, innovation, and the protection of individuals involved in clinical research.”

Disclosures: Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.

Reference

Kao J, Ross JS, Miller JE. Transparency of results reporting in cancer clinical trials. JAMA Netw Open. Published online August 9, 2023. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28117

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