Oncology clinical trial sites driven by patient enrollment needs

A study shows the number of sites required for an oncology clinical trial is dependent on the total patients needed.

The total number of patients needed for the study drives the number of investigator sites used in oncology clinical trials, research has found.

A paper, titled Oncology Clinical Trials: Drug Development Resources and Case Studies, conducted by Cutting Edge Information, found the number of patients per site in Phase 1 clinical trials varied from 5.3 to 35.3, with an average of 12.9 per site.

This compared with 3.4 patients per site for Phase 2 investigations and 5.1 patients per site for Phase 3 trials.
Ryan McGuire, senior research analyst at Cutting Edge Information commented: "Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials have much smaller patient groups at each investigator site. These clinical tests require patients with a very specific disease state slowing patient recruitment."

He added that the combination of patients and healthy controls tends to make recruitment much easier in Phase 1 trials.

Last week, Nymox announced it has recruited half of the patients needed for its prostate cancer clinical trial.