a b s t r a c t
Objectives of the study were to measure recruitment rates in clinical trials and to identify patients,
physicians or trials characteristics associated with higher recruitment rates. Among patients who had a
clinical trial available for their cancer, 83.5% (345/413) met the eligibility criteria to at least one clinical
trial. At least one trial was proposed to 33.1% (113/341) of the eligible patients and 19.7% (68/345) were
recruited. Overall recruitment was 16.5% (68/413). In multivariate analyses, trial proposal and enrollment
were lower for elderly patients and higher in high cancer stages. Trials from pharmaceutical industry had
higher recruitment rates and trials testing hormonal therapy enrolled more patients. Breast cancer patients’
accrual to a clinical trial could be improved by trying to systematically identify all eligible patients
and propose a trial to those eligible and to whom the treatment is planned to be equivalent to the
standard arm of the trial.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.