National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov
Section II: Conducting Cancer Clinical Trials page 1 of 31 Return to Menu.
Module 4: Patient Recruitment Resources. Glossary. Bookmark. PDF.Help.

Introduction

Recruitment Plan

Recruitment Methods

Avoiding
Under-Representation

Summary

Patient Recruitment

A nurse with a patient.

Besides the scientific integrity of the research protocol and the compliance with the protocol and related regulations, another factor that determines the success of a clinical trial is patient recruitment.  All trials require the enrollment of a sufficient number of patients to ensure the statistical power and the generalizability of study results.  The sooner a trial can reach its enrollment goal, the faster data are collected, analyzed, and shared in the medical community to improve cancer care.

Successful patient recruitment starts with a well-designed plan that maps out all the steps, methods, and research team member responsibilities for the recruitment efforts.  While building such a plan, attention should be given to issues regarding research ethics and under-representation of women and ethnic minority groups in the study population.

  Next.

Skip Navigation. Return to Section Two Menu.