Recruitment of patients to cooperative group clinical trials

One of the prerequisites for a successful clinical trial is the accrual of a sufficient number of patients for study. Because the sample-size requirements for a randomized clinical trial can rarely be met by a single institution in a short period of time, cooperative groups have taken in a major role in conducting clinical trials. In this paper, the recruitment of patients at our institution to a lung cancer clinical trial is evaluated. A total of 653 lung cancer cases were reviewed. Of the 77 cases which were eligible for the trial, 41 were accessioned. The reasons why eligible patients were not accessioned to the trial are discussed.