Designing Rigorous and Efficient Clinical Utility Studies for Early Detection Biomarkers

Before implementing a biomarker in routine clinical care, it must demonstrate clinical utility by leading to clinical actions that positively affect patient-relevant outcomes. Randomly controlled early detection utility trials, especially those targeting mortality endpoint, are challenging due to their high costs and prolonged duration. Special design considerations are required to determine the clinical utility of early detection assays. This commentary reports on discussions among the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network investigators, outlining the recommended process for carrying out single-organ biomarker-driven clinical utility studies. We present the early detection utility studies in the context of phased biomarker development. We describe aspects of the studies related to the features of biomarker tests, the clinical context of endpoints, the performance criteria for later phase evaluation, and study size. We discuss novel adaptive design approaches for improving the efficiency and practicality of clinical utility trials. We recommend using multiple strategies, including adopting real-world evidence, emulated trials, and mathematical modeling to circumvent the challenges in conducting early detection utility trials.