Clinical Trials Reporting Program

Overview of CTRP

NCI's Clinical Trials Reporting Program maintains a comprehensive database of information on all NCI-supported interventional clinical trials open to accrual as of January 1, 2009. This database, also referred to as CTRP, helps identify gaps and duplicate studies in clinical research, facilitates clinical trial prioritization, and standardizes trial data capture and sharing.

Key benefits of CTRP include:

• Standardized abstraction of protocol information
• Consistent terminology and coding to optimize search and retrieval of cancer trials information
• Biomarker and patient-level accrual data
• Standardized person and organization data elements

Definition of NCI-supported Trials

NCI-supported clinical trials are sponsored or otherwise financially supported by NCI. These trials may be extramural or intramural and include:

• All National trials (e.g., NCTN, ETCTN, NCORP)
• All trials conducted at an NCI-Designated Cancer Center (with P30 center core grant), including all industrial trials
• Trials conducted under any type of contract, grant, or cooperative agreement supported by the NCI (e.g., R01, N01, SPORE, P01, U01, U10)

Use of Clinical Trial Information

All publicly available CTRP clinical trial information is available through the clinical trials search feature on Cancer.gov.  Data from CTRP is also available via an application programming interface (API). Information about the API can be found at https://clinicaltrialsapi.cancer.gov. Developers can also check out the Clinical Trials API code and example widget from our Github.

NCI-Designated Cancer Centers and other grantees can log in to CTRP and perform searches on all trials they have submitted, as well as those where they are listed as a participating site. If a center requires a more detailed report on their trials, they may submit a request via the Clinical Trials Reporting Office (CTRO, ncictro@mail.nih.gov,) and a CTRP analyst will work with them to generate a custom report.

Origin of CTRP

CTRP was established in response to a recommendation made by the NCI Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG) to the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB).

Key conclusions of the 2005 CTWG report:

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• NCI had no electronic database that captured all NCI supported trials and their accrual
• R01s, R21s, P01s, SPORE grants and institutionally-supported trials using NCI-funded Cancer Center infrastructure resources were particularly difficult to identify
• Available databases did not allow NCI and the broader cancer community to:
  • Manage the portfolio accountably by monitoring accrual, identifying gaps and duplicative studies
  • Effectively prioritize clinical trials

In 2015, the Clinical Trials Informatics Working Group of the NCI Clinical Trials and Translational Research Advisory Committee (CTAC) was formed to advise the NCI on refining CTRP as a clinical trials portfolio management resource; increasing the usability and accessibility of the clinical trial information for physicians, patients, and the public by enhancing clinical trial search capabilities; and enhancing the utility of CTRP as a clinical trials information resource for the cancer research community.  The CTIWG report was accepted by CTAC in November 2017.