Fast recruiting clinical trials – a Utopian dream or logistical nightmare?

Randomised clinical trials that exceed anticipated recruitment rates will by definition have the necessary precision to answer the research question within the expected time, thus ensuring the timely release of data that will inform future clinical practice. In addition, the national or international momentum generated brings with it a collective sense of achievement. Such trials, however, may also identify logistical and scientific problems that researchers should be aware of and for which provision needs to be made. The logistical problems relate to the rapid identification of the extra resources required to allow continued excellence in day-to-day management and monitoring of trial governance (both in participating centres and in coordinating trials units). The scientific/clinical problems include managing issues such as unexpected toxicities and suboptimal compliance, and the lack of time available in a rapidly recruiting trial to address them. A related issue concerns the lack of time available to initiate substudies (e.g. biological substudies), the relevance of which may only become apparent as the trial progresses. Many of these challenges were highlighted by recent experience with the Cancer Research UK Taxotere as Adjuvant Chemotherapy trial.