Background:
The Cancer Trials Management Scheme (CTMS) was introduced in 1988 by Cancer Council Victoria, as a funding mechanism to increase trial site capacity and recruitment in cancer clinical trials. Over time, the breadth and mechanism of the CTMS has changed, making it the only source of comprehensive cancer clinical trial data in Victoria.
Aim:
To conduct a longitudinal analysis of CTMS data; exploring trial site activity in Victoria between 2009 and 2015.
Methods:
CTMS data collected between 2009 and 2015 were combined, assessed for completeness and cleaned for consistency across years. Trials were included in the analysis if they met the World Health Organization definition of a clinical trial and were classified as ‘treatment’ according to their Common Scientific Outcome. Descriptive statistics were used to describe trial and patient characteristics over time.
Results:
Between 2009 and 2015, the average rate of recruitment into cancer clinical trials was 5.3%. The highest proportion of trials (32.5%) was for blood cancers, across all years. In 2015, 14.5% of all new blood cancer diagnoses were recruited into clinical trials - three times the average rate of recruitment in that year for all cancers. Only 1.7% of new bowel cancer diagnoses were recruited into trials in the same year. Over the seven-year period, the number of Phase I trials, and trials recruiting from multiple tumour streams, increased. Despite this, the number of patients in clinical trials remained virtually unchanged. The proportion of rural patients recruited into trials at metropolitan health services increased from 54% in 2009 to 85% in 2015.
Conclusion:
This report represents the first longitudinal analysis of CTMS data collected between 2009 and 2015. Trends in this analysis provide an important benchmark for cancer clinical trial activity in Victoria.