Accruals

This page provides figures for ‘accruals’ or the number of people ‘recruited’ to cancer trials in Ireland. 

Note: While Cancer Trials Ireland makes every effort to track numbers for all trials in Ireland, in some instances this is not possible. The figures below therefore are accurate for 95%+ of all trials in Ireland.

WARNING: If you are not working in the cancer trials community, you should not interpret the figures below without assistance from Cancer Trials Ireland. While COVID19 and the Ransomware attack have impacted the number of patients recruited to trials, there may be other factors contributing to a decrease/increase in recruitment. 

What are the latest figures?

The figures below relate to the first nine months of 2023, 2022, and 2021 from January 1st – September 30th. They include every type of trial, Clinical Trials (interventional / drug trials / combination drug and radiotherapy trials), radiotherapy trials, medical devices, translational trials (biomarker and observational studies) and registries. The numbers also include academic and industry trials. The data for the same period in 2022 & 2021 is included for comparative purposes.  

First Nine Months of the Year: Below numbers reflect patients newly recruited to cancer clinical trials in Ireland

*RT/IMP, RT/IMP involv and Med Dev/RT involv categories were introduced in 2022 (all above numbers have been revised accordingly)

What does ‘CTRIAL’ mean?

This refers to studies that have a Cancer Trials Ireland code, because it is a study in which we play an active part, or because it is a study we have ‘adopted’ into our portfolio, in order to include it in DSSG meeting discussions, and for other reasons. 

What does ‘Non-CTRIAL’ mean? 

This refers to studies whose recruitment numbers we track, but which Cancer Trials Ireland is not involved with in any capacity. Our objective in tracking recruitment numbers on these trials, and CTRIAL trials, is to provide the fullest picture possible for the number of people joining cancer trials in Ireland.

Accruals classified by disease area:

The figures below display patient recruitments in terms of the disease area they were recruited to for the first nine months in 2023 vs. the same period in 2022 and 2021. 

WARNING: Many complex factors contribute to the rise and fall of patient recruitment, including trial availability, trial closure, patient population and so forth. Readers should not simply interpret this data as a measure of performance.  

DSSG 2023 Q1 – Q3 2022 Q1 – Q3 2021 Q1 – Q3
Basket 105 183 122
Breast  379 395 497
CNS 0 0 2
GI  108 8 28
GU 119 68 87
Gynaecology 8 6 16
Head & Neck 32 16 6
Lung 38 31 18
Lymph & Haem 203 303 209
Melanoma 22 16 5
Paeds 15 19 27
Sarcoma 0 1 0
Total 1029  1046 1017

* Basket trials include several different disease areas in one trial.

Accruals classified by trial site:

The figures below display patient recruitments regarding the hospital sites where they were recruited to the first nine months of 2023 versus the same period in previous years.   

WARNING: Many complex factors contribute to the rise and fall of patient recruitment, including trial availability, trial closure, patient population and so forth. Readers should not simply interpret this data as a measure of performance.  

Site2023 Q1 – Q32022 Q1 – Q32021 Q1 – Q3
BH/ OLOLH243256177
Beacon329
BonS663912
BonS/UPMC1386
CUH80212306
LUH000
MMUH14721145
MRHT1014146
CHI141927
SJH532932
SLRON393827
SVUH1288953
SUH297
TUH843132
UHG90520
UHL3378121
UHW242117
Total102910451017

* Basket trials include several different disease areas in one trial.