The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on oncology clinical trials

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruptions to clinical trial research across the world due to a temporary global suspension of patients’ recruitment to cancer clinical trials Here within we present the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer clinical trial activity at the Clinical Trials Ireland Unit at the Mid-Western Cancer Centre In the first six months of 2020 directly compared with the same period in 2019 there was a 33% (147 V’s 99) reduction in patients screened for participation and a 60% (37 V’s 15) reduction in patients consented to clinical trials within our unit At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased clinical research activities in regard to the development of treatments, diagnostics and vaccines to control the pandemic Extrapolating our observations from the swift implementation of COVID19-related clinical trials, we discuss strategies to improve the design and conduct of cancer clinical trials © 2020, Irish Medical Association All rights reserved