Factors influencing the performance of clinical research networks to improve the success of cancer clinical trials: A scoping review and organizational analysis

Cancer clinical research networks (CRNs) play a vital role in medical research globally by generating investigator-initiated research, pooling expertise, and enabling recruitment across multiple sites. Completing clinical trials is challenging. Delays can slow the generation of evidence needed to refine the best patient treatments. The aim of this review was to identify factors that have been either proposed or shown by research to influence the performance of cancer CRNs to improve trial success, outcomes and impact. A scoping review was conducted using a systematic search across five databases [PROSPERO CRD42023414241]. Records were screened for eligibility. For included articles, data on factors and research methods were extracted independently by up to three reviewers, and disagreements resolved by discussion. 1928 articles were returned, 13 were included. Articles reported on 11 membership-based cancer CRNs with headquarters in four countries (eight in the USA). Factors influencing CRN performance broadly fell into six categories: site, CRN, patient, regulatory, policy and industry factors, with subcategories in each case. These findings may help to inform future research to prioritize and improve the day-to-day performance of membership-based cancer CRNs and other trial sponsors to optimize clinical trial success. Further research is warranted.