Only 3% of US Cancer Patients Participate in Clinical Trials

Despite the plethora of new drugs and increasing trial access, cancer trials are woefully undersubscribed.  Only 3% of U.S. adults with cancer enroll in trials, and 86% of all U.S. cancer trials do not even meet their original accrual goals (enrollment goals for participation).  Many trials close due to lack of enrollment. At that rate, the war on cancer will never leave the lab rat.  These idle clinical trails cost millions of dollars a day from taxpayers’ federally funded NIH research as well as significant costs to pharmaceutical companies and their investors.  On average, a pharmaceutical company loses $1.3 million for each day’s delay in a drug gaining FDA approval. 

            By comparison, in Scandinavia 70% of cancer patients enroll in clinical cancer research trials, and the Netherlands has become the first country to fund and offer 100% tumor banking for gene array research.  In general, trials accrue faster outside the U.S. and drug development and approval is faster outside the U.S.  One exception in the U.S. is pediatric cancer, of which 75% participate in clinical trials.  This may be due to the probability that parents are more motivated about their children’s health than their own.  Due to the large 75% enrollment in pediatric cancer trials, the past few decades have witnessed a massive improvement of 75% cure rate in childhood cancer.