Central statistical monitoring of investigator-led clinical trials in oncology

Abstract

Investigator-led clinical trials are pragmatic trials that aim to investigate the benefits and harms of treatments in routine clinical practice. These much-needed trials represent the majority of all trials currently conducted. They are however threatened by the rising costs of clinical research, which are in part due to extensive trial monitoring processes that focus on unimportant details. Risk-based quality management focuses, instead, on "things that really matter". We discuss the role of central statistical monitoring as part of risk-based quality management. We describe the principles of central statistical monitoring, provide examples of its use, and argue that it could help drive down the cost of randomized clinical trials, especially investigator-led trials, whilst improving their quality.