NCI's PDQ® Database of Clinical Trials Grows

Page Options

	Quick Links


	Director's Corner Dictionary of Cancer Terms NCI Drug Dictionary Funding Opportunities NCI Publications Advisory Boards and Groups Science Serving People Español

Questions about cancer?


	1-800-4-CANCER

	LiveHelp® online chat

	NCI Highlights


	Virtual and Standard Colonoscopy Both Accurate New Study of Targeted Therapies for Breast Cancer The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research FY 2009 Cancer Trends Progress Report: 2007 Update Past Highlights

Cancer patients and their families, health professionals, and patient advocates will now be able to find information on many more cancer clinical trials in PDQ with the inclusion of trials from the ClinicalTrials.gov database. Since the inception of ClinicalTrials.gov by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), PDQ has provided the majority of cancer trials listed in that database. However, ClinicalTrials.gov obtains some cancer trials from sources other than PDQ. Inclusion of these additional trials in PDQ illustrates the commitment of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and NLM to provide a closely matched set of trials on their Web sites.

What is the source of these new trials?

Under the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, information about phase II and phase III trials conducted by the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and other research organizations under an Investigational New Drug (IND) application must be submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov. Submission to PDQ has been optional. Now, as a result of this collaboration between NLM and NCI, people will be able to find these trials using the Cancer.gov Clinical Trials Basic Search and Advanced Search forms.

How many trials have been added to the PDQ database from ClinicalTrials.gov?

The March update of the PDQ database includes the addition of 194 trials from ClinicalTrials.gov. We anticipate adding more trials every month.

Do users need to specify additional criteria to find these trials?

No. Users will not need to do anything special to find these trials. The trials will be included in the search results if they meet the search criteria that are selected.

Will trials obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov contain the same information in PDQ as the information that appears on the ClinicalTrials.gov Web site?

The text of the trial summaries will be the same on both systems. PDQ may make minor changes to standardize the names of trial sponsors, participating sites, and trial contacts. Trial locations and contacts may differ slightly between PDQ and ClinicalTrials.gov. For active trials, PDQ lists all sites that are currently recruiting patients; ClinicalTrials.gov lists all sites for all trials.

In the PDQ database, what are the differences between ClincalTrials.gov trial descriptions and PDQ trial descriptions?

PDQ clinical trials are available in two versions - one designed for patients and another for health professionals. The patient version uses non-technical language with many medical terms linked to definitions in NCI's Cancer.gov Dictionary. The health professional version of each trial contains greater detail and technical terminology.
The trials from ClinicalTrials.gov contain the same text in both the patient and health professional versions.
ClinicalTrials.gov trials do not contain links to the Cancer.gov Dictionary.
PDQ trial descriptions use a standard set of subsections. Trial descriptions obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov are not written in the same format.