Data from two large cancer centres in the United States have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic caused substantial disruption to clinical trials for cancer treatment and care.
The research, published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology today (Wednesday), shows that, compared to the immediate pre-pandemic period, there was a 46% decrease in new patient accruals, and a 24% decrease in newly activated trials between March and May 2020.
In particular, a pronounced decrease in the numbers of new patients recruited to trials at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, Massachusetts) and the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Medical School (New York) occurred in academically sponsored trials as opposed to industry sponsored trials.
The research also shows that non-White patients were one and a half times more likely than White patients to be taken off trials during the pandemic.
Co-author, Dr Chris Labaki, a postdoctoral research fellow, at Dana-Farber, said: “Oncology clinical trials experienced a significant disruption during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with fewer new patients enrolled to trials and fewer trials started. This major decline probably reflects the strain imposed on the healthcare system during the pandemic as resources were diverted towards immediate hospital and patient needs.
“However, the good news is that both patient accruals and trial activations gradually recovered during the subsequent periods of the pandemic and have now returned to higher-than-normal levels, despite the ongoing nature of the pandemic. This shows that cancer centres are able to adapt to the COVID-19-related disruptions in clinical trial activities, which is crucial if we are to achieve better and novel therapeutic options for patients with cancer.”
Compared to the immediate pre-pandemic period (December 2019 to March 2020), by March to May 2021 the numbers of patients recruited to trials had increased by nearly 3%, and the numbers of newly activated trials had increased by 30%.
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