Roughly 1 in 5 cancer patients in the United States ends up participating in clinical cancer research. The experience allows patients access to new treatment options and gives them a chance to improve the lives of future patients. New research, however, finds that federally funded clinical trial participation has been flat for some time, leading pharmaceutical companies to handle a larger share of studies.

Research recently conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center investigated how many people have enrolled in federally funded clinical trials versus industry trials in recent years. The team says that both types have their benefits, though they do focus on different things.

Dr. Joseph Unger, the study’s lead author and health services researcher at Fred Hutchinson, explains, “Industry investment in cancer clinical research has accelerated precision oncology and cancer immunotherapy tremendously. However, with increased federal investment in cancer research as well, we could see even greater strides in treatment options for patients with cancer.”

However, the study – published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and drawing from data on more than 26,000 studies – showed that there has not been much increase in federal investment lately. Between 2018 and 2022, the ratio of enrollees in pharmaceutical industry trials to federally sponsored trials was 8:1. There was also a marked increase between 2008-2012 and 2018-2022. For adults, the ratio increased from 4.8:1 to 9.6:1 between those two periods. For trials in children, it jumped from 0.7 to 2.3.

The findings also showed that federal enrollment remained flat throughout the study period, which ran from 2008 to 2022 and used data from ClinicalTrials.gov.

The researchers say this is a problem, as industry-based trials typically focus most on drug approvals, while federally funded trials look at more factors, like whether certain drugs may also work for other cancers or how treatments can be combined. They also tend to be more diverse, with three times as many Black patients enrolled in federal trials versus industry trials.

Dr. Unger says, “Underinvestment in federally funded cancer clinical research results in missed opportunities for scientific, clinical and population advances. Federally funded cancer clinical trials have contributed to more than 14 million life years gained over four decades and have helped improve clinical care guidelines for patients.”

You can read more on the topic in the whole paper, which can be found here.