A perspective on the state of the cancer clinical trials system

June 24, 2010

A perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on the cancer clinical trials system in the United States. The IOM report found, among other things, that 40% of clinical trials funded by the National Cancer Institute are never completed. The clinical trials system was described as "bloated, cumbersome, inefficient, slow-paced, overmanaged, and expensive." Sadly, the perspective reminds us that these problems are not new. A 1997 report offered the same conclusions, and yet thirteen years later, we are still plagued by the same issues. The perspective concludes with a hopeful call to action for the new National Cancer Institute director to not let perfection be the enemy of the good, and to implement many of the recommendations without letting stakeholder interests weaken the needed changes.