An additional funding intervention to improve clinical trial enrolment

In Australia, a low proportion of adults with cancer are recruited into clinical trials. A randomised controlled trial was conducted to test whether one year of additional funding would increase recruitment numbers. In the intervention arm, additional payments ranged from $6,750 to $234,000, representing an average of 11.8% increase in sites’ budget. Most sites used this additional funding to increase staffing. The results of the study conclude that additional funding at a site level did not lead to an increase in trial recruitment within the same year (ratio, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.69-1.43). Although limited by study duration, this study highlights that expanding staffing may not be a successful strategy to increase accrual. Further research is needed to investigate effective strategies aimed at improving recruitment rates. Read the full article here.