The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7496 p392
5 April 2008

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Cancer trial success rates

Between a quarter and a half of new cancer treatments assessed in publicly funded clinical trials become successful new interventions, according to an analysis of all publicly funded phase III cancer therapy trials conducted in the US between 1955 and 2000 (Archives of Internal Medicine 2008;168:632).

Researchers found no evidence that the average rate of success had changed over this period.

However, the variability in success between trials reduced, possibly, the researchers suggest, as a result of increased sample sizes.