Results from nearly half of oncology trials unreported within 3 years of completion
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Key takeaways:
- 36.3% of oncology trials evaluated reported results on one of three key platforms within 1 year of completion.
- 56.1% did so within 3 years.
A review of oncology trials showed approximately two-thirds did not report results on any of three key platforms within 1 year of completion.
Nearly half of trials did not report results on any of those platforms within 3 years of completion, findings published in JAMA Network Open showed.
“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,” Jennifer Kao, PhD, assistant professor of strategy at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and colleagues 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.”
Background and methodology
Problems surrounding timely access to clinical trial results — typically reported through trial registries, medical journals and/or medical conferences — persist in the research community, according to study background.
Kao and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the rate at which trials that finished between 2008 and 2021 and had an oncologic indication reported results via one of three key platforms — ClinicalTrials.gov, ASCO meetings indexed publications.
The analysis included 10,442 eligible trials.
Results
Approximately one-third (36.3%) of trials reported results via at least one of the key platforms within 1 year of completion, and 0.4% reported results across all three platforms in that time.
Slightly more than half (56.1%) of trials reported results via at least one of the key platforms within 3 years of completion, with 1.2% reporting results across all three platforms in that time.
The most commonly used platform to report results within 3 years of completion was ClinicalTrials.gov (40%), followed by ASCO meetings (21.9%) and index publications (10.5%).
A similar percentage of industry-funded and NIH-funded trials reported results within 1 year of completion (43.2% vs. 41.8%). However, a higher percentage of NIH-funded trials than industry-funded trials reported results within 3 years (73.4% vs. 62.7%).
Implications
Researchers acknowledged study limitations, including the possibility that results were published through other platforms such as press releases or preprints.
“Given the importance of detailed results reporting and peer review facilitated through journal publication, our results suggest that efforts may be needed to understand low rates of publication observed,” they wrote.
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