AsianScientist (Apr. 22, 2011) – Clinical trial registries provide comprehensive records of all trials with the aim of preventing publication bias. However, they could also enlighten us about the amount and nature of current trial activity, and if certain diseases are disproportionately supported.
A team led by Dr. Rachel Dear, an oncologist in Australia, investigated this with a focus on cancers in Australia. The team’s results were published in the latest issue of Medical Journal of Australia.
They discovered that 4 out of 5 cancers with the greatest burden of disease had relatively few clinical trials (lung, colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancers). These cancers may have been underrepresented due to a lack of interventions worth testing until recently.
Industry sponsorship (i.e. pharmaceutical and devices companies) for clinical trials was associated with trials of systemic therapies that include patients with advanced cancer, but did not extend to many different cancer types.
There was also lack of research into cancer prevention, early detection and lifestyle trials.
Interestingly, they found a higher proportion of breast cancer trials that were non-industry sponsored and funded. This was attributed to consumer influence on the research agenda.
These results have shown the effectiveness of using clinical trial registries to identify the direction of current research while also to identify gaps which need further exploration.
The article can be found at: Dear, RF et al. (2011) Landscape of cancer clinical trials in Australia: using trial registries to guide future research.
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Source: University of Sydney.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
