A new study published on Thursday reveals one of the indirect damages of the pandemic: scientists have trouble recruiting volunteers for their research on lung cancer. The research found that enrollment in clinical trials decreased by 43% in 2020 compared to the previous year, forcing researchers to find some creative ways to reduce wear and tear as the year went on.
Both the pandemic and the restrictions on distancing and movement enacted in response to it brought about significant changes in our society, especially in the early days. Studies have found, for example, that emergency room visits for noncovid diseases rejected last year, as did other important but not necessarily urgent medical services, such as cancer screenings. The new research, presented This week, at the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), it seems to show that cancer research was also a great success.
IASLC-affiliated researchers examined it lung cancer trial enrollment data worldwide in 2019 and 2020; some scientists involved in these trials also surveyed. According to lead author Matthew Smeltzer, an epidemiologist at the University of Memphis, they were able to examine 171 trials from 173 research sites in 45 countries, although most came from North America, Europe and Asia.
Compared to 2019, found Smeltzer and his team, the number of registrations had dropped by 43% in 2020, with the hardest decline between April and August. When asked, the scientists reported that their most common challenges were fewer eligible patients (67%); problems maintaining pre-established study protocols, such as face-to-face site visits (61%); and trials are permanently suspended temporarily (60%). The researchers also reported that volunteers were more concerned with hiring covid-19 (83%), travel restrictions (47%), and ensuring transportation (38%).
“Decreases in enrollment in clinical trials are worrisome and can lead to delays in the completion of trials,” Smeltzer told Gizmodo in an email.
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The pandemic has had effects throughout medicine and science. Earlier this week, a new report found that covid-19 did reverse the fight against public health against other major deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, both in the prevention and treatment of new cases. And while clinical research often takes years to complete, lung cancer has been one of the areas that has seen relatively quick and likely lives saved. advances in recent years.
Smeltzer and his team discovered that scientists were able to adjust a bit. Although cases of covid-19 only continue to increase over time worldwide, the decline in enrollment slowed. Some of the strategies employed by the scientists in these trials included changing the design of the study to allow for remote control or telecare visits, sending medications to patients, and simply delaying visits.
The authors of this research (which, it should be noted, has not yet undergone a formal peer review), have not analyzed the data for 2021, so they do not want to speculate on how enrollment in lung cancer trials has gone this year. . But Smeltzer believes some of the methods used to hold trials during the pandemic could be widely adopted even after that crisis has passed.
“I believe that many of the mitigation strategy sites used during the pandemic, designed to provide more flexibility and leverage modern technology, could improve clinical trials beyond the pandemic. There seems to be a drive to make some of these changes permanent for cancer trials, ”he said.