Prevalence, Past Experience, and Competition
Prevalence
Prostate cancer often causes no symptoms in the early stages when it’s still highly treatable. While some types of prostate cancer grow slowly and never spread outside the prostate gland, others can be very aggressive and need to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.
This makes regular check-ups a necessity, especially for men over 50 who are at a higher risk.
As you can see on the map by TrialHub below, prostate cancer is most prevalent in the developed world, especially in the Scandinavian countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland.
Of course, considering the population size, the biggest pool of patients is in the US. Interested to know which countries come next? Log into TrialHub to find out.
Countries with Past Experience
The way we usually measure the research experience of a given country is by calculating the number of trials performed per one million people. The map below shows, on a global level, which countries have had more clinical trials than others compared to their population:
The regions in the darkest red are the ones with the most previous experience in running studies in prostate cancer. However, when we exclude Phase 4 and, if we only want to see trials conducted in the past 3 years, the total number of trials in Sweden ends up being 5. This is how the map changes:
Although California has the most completed trials in the past 3 years (excluding Phase 4), considering the size of the population, it turns out that Nebraska has the most completed trials per million people.
If we look at the number of trials completed in general divided by the number of people who live there, then the top 3 countries are:
As you can see, top prevalent Norway and Sweden did not qualify in the above ranking. Only Finland appears second with a total of 57 completed prostate cancer trials.
However, to get a more relevant result you may want to only see trials completed in the last 3 years.
Are you curious what happened to Denmark, Finland, and Belgium? Check on TrialHub.
Interesting Note:
Among the 1,463 analyzed trials, we have identified 62 trials that had a virtual component included in their design. 5 of the 62 research studies are Treatment focused. You can find their details here.
Countries with Active or Recruiting Clinical Trials
At the moment there are 2,482 active, recruiting, or not yet recruiting clinical trials. Of them, the recruiting ones are 1,463.
The countries with the highest number of trials are the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. However, if we want to better measure the competition level when it comes to patient recruitment, it’s best to measure trials versus population. Based on trials per million people, the top countries with the highest competition are as follows:
On the below map, you can also get a better idea of the global competition running clinical trials in prostate cancer:
The dark green regions are the ones with less or no competitive trials. As you can see on the map, though the USA is one of the countries with the most clinical trials in prostate cancer, there certainly are areas where there is not that much research at the moment. They present an opportunity to connect with local centers and partner on including their patients.
To see how the whole therapeutic area of Oncology was doing in 2020 and Q1 of 2021, check our 2021 Clinical Research Market Overview.
Interesting Note:
If we put Europe in the spotlight, the countries with the most competition are France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. At the same time, countries with the highest prevalence have less competition: Sweden ranks 13th in place, Finland – 17th, and Norway – 45th. This order is only relevant for trials in Phase 1, 2 and 3 – for more details you can look on TrialHub or get in touch with us at patientsfirst@findmecure.com.
Recruitment Rates and Trials’ Performance Statistics
We analyzed 1,463 clinical trials for their Recruitment Rates and assessed countries based on their Average Recruitment Rate (patients/ site/ month). The map below presents the regions with high ARR in dark yellow, the highest being 7.77 patients/site/month and the lowest – 0.03 patients per site per month.
For Phase 3 studies only, ARR ranges vary between 0.04 and 10.59 and for Phase 1 and 1/2 between 0.03 and 0.51 patients/site/month respectively. There is also a difference between clinical trials with observational purpose and those with treatment as a purpose (the highest recruitment rate here has been est. at 11.26).
Looking at the highest recruiting countries, these are the top 5:
On the other end of the ranking, the countries that have the lowest ARR are:
It is important to mention that all these rates are based on all sorts of research studies. If we are to focus on studies that target treatment, then countries like Panama, Thailand, and Malaysia are on top with their recruitment rates of 2.27, 1.69, 1.68 patients/site/month respectively.
Interesting Stats:
Here are some statistics on the planned vs. actual performance of the prostate cancer clinical trials:
Trials overestimated how many patients per site per month they could recruit by 90% resulting in delays. To recruit the needed number of patients new sites were opened (16% more than the amount the trials started with).
Sites and Investigators
At TrialHub, we have identified 9,201 research center organizations that have been working on clinical trials for prostate cancer. You can see on the map how they are distributed. 7,769 of them have had at least one study focused on treatment.
Highlighted in red are the ones currently working on trials in prostate cancer:
When it comes to research sites that are currently not involved with studies in this indication, out of 9,201, we identified that about ⅓ are currently not occupied – 3,210.
Below, we provide you with a list of the most experienced organizations in prostate cancer research in the countries with the highest number of trials per million people:
- Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc (UCLouvain), Belgium
- Rigshospitalet, Denmark
- Tampere University Hospital, Finland
There are also many investigators with a background in prostate cancer research where studies have been conducted. At TrialHub we identified 9,202 such investigators. 5,898 of them have experience in trials focused on researching treatments. 1,106 of these investigators have worked on Phase 1 and Phase 1/2 studies.
Interesting Note:
The top 10 investigators with the most completed clinical trials in prostate cancer are:
- Eric Hirshberg, MD – Canada, Guelph
- Jane Bell – Canada, Laval
- Dr. Jean Simard – Canada, Laval
- Paul De Souza, MBBS FRACP – Australia, Kogarah
- Jeremy T Booth, PhD – Australia – St Leonards
- Thomas N Eade, RANZCR I&II – Australia, St Leonards
- Thomas N Eade, MBBS – Australia, St Leonards
- Andrew Kneebone, MBBS – Australia, Sydney
To learn more about them, and other investigators available to run clinical trials in prostate cancer you can contact us at patientsfirst@findmecure.com.
TrialHub is a feasibility intelligence platform that supports feasibility, startup, patient recruitment and clinical project managers with a 360-degree overview of the clinical research landscape in order to plan successful and on-time clinical trials.
TrialHub does this by aggregating thousands of data sources in real-time and combining them with local experts’ insights.
The data provided in this article is gathered in November 2020 and is based on 17 clinical trial registries (clinicaltrials.gov, eudract.ema.europa.eu etc.) and analytics about thousands of clinical trials.
If you want to get an up-to-date and/or customized feasibility for Prostate Cancer or need an assessment about a different indication or TA, please contact us at patientsfirst@findmecure.com
