The pandemic has made lung cancer research more difficult

A new study published Thursday highlights one of the collateral damage of the pandemic: Scientists are struggling to recruit volunteers for their lung cancer research. Research has found that clinical trial registrations are down 43% in 2020 from the previous year, forcing researchers to find creative ways to reduce attrition as the year progresses.

The pandemic and the distancing and movement restrictions adopted in response to it have resulted in significant changes in our society, especially in the early days. Studies have shown, for example, that emergency room visits for an illness unrelated to covid decreases last year, as well as other important but not necessarily urgent medical services like cancer screenings. The new research, present this week at the annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), seems to show that cancer research has also taken a big hit.

Researchers affiliated with IASLC examined worldwide lung cancer trial recruitment data in 2019 and 2020; they also interviewed some scientists involved in these trials. According to lead author Matthew Smeltzer, an epidemiologist at the University of Memphis, they were able to review 171 trials from 173 research sites in 45 countries, although most were from North America, Europe and Asia. .

Compared to 2019, Smeltzer and his team found that registrations fell 43% in 2020, with the most severe drop seen between April and August. When asked, scientists said their most common challenges were fewer eligible patients (67%); difficulty maintaining pre-established study protocols, such as in-person site visits (61%); and the trials being purely and simply temporarily suspended (60%). Researchers also reported that volunteers were the most worried about contracting covid-19 (83%), travel restrictions (47%), and securing transportation (38%).

“The decline in clinical trial registrations is concerning and could cause delays in the completion of trials,” Smeltzer told Gizmodo in an email.

The pandemic has had ripple effects across medicine and science. Earlier this week, a new report found that covid-19 has indented the public health fight against other major fatal diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, both in the prevention and treatment of new cases. And although clinical research often takes years to unfold, lung cancer has been one area that has grown relatively rapidly and has the potential to save lives. advances in recent years.

The silver lining, Smeltzer and his team found, is that scientists were able to adapt somewhat. Although the cases of covid-19 do continue to increase over time around the world, the decline in enrollments has slowed. Some of the strategies scientists employed in these trials included changing the study design to allow remote monitoring or telehealth visits, sending medication to patients, and simply postponing visits.

The authors of this research (which, it should be noted, has not yet undergone a formal peer review), did not review the data from 2021, so they do not want to speculate on the how registrations for lung cancer trials have gone this year. . But Smeltzer believes some of the methods used to continue testing during the pandemic could be widely adopted even after this crisis is over.

“I think many of the mitigation strategy sites used during the pandemic, aimed at providing more flexibility and taking advantage of modern technology, could improve clinical trials beyond the pandemic. There seems to be momentum to make some of these changes permanent for cancer trials, ”he said.