Case Study

Pancreatic Cancer

Enrolling Patients Quickly After Diagnosis

The Challenge

A Phase II clinical trial was underway to test a drug for pancreatic cancer. The sponsor’s overall goal was to recruit 99 patients across 10 sites. nRollmed was brought on after the trial had been active for some time but was stalled due to slow recruitment. nRollmed’s recruitment services were added to 6 of the sites. The inclusion/exclusion criteria were stringent, which added to the usual challenge of recruitment. One especially challenging criterion was that the patients needed to have been chemo naive, which meant that they needed to be recruited within 2 weeks following their diagnosis. There were also many other clinical trials for pancreatic cancer taking place simultaneously at some of the sites, generating competition for qualified patients. Another main challenge was sadly the short life expectancy of the patients. The average life expectancy was about 3 months, meaning that there was a short period of time to recruit a patient into the trial.

Customized and Collaborative Approach

After conducting rigorous research, nRollmed gleaned strategic insights for recruitment: The patients spent a lot of time seeking alternative treatments across the web and were therefore particularly open to enrolling in clinical trials. Also, patients were less limited to geographical location and were willing to travel longer distances for the opportunity to receive potentially life-saving treatment. Approaching caregivers was another integral part of the strategy and it turned out that many of the referred patients were found using this method. nRollmed launched an online awareness campaign which drew the interest of over 400 patients. These patients were pre-screened and referred to the sites for scheduling.

The nRollmed Method

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Results

nRollmed made a significant impact on the recruitment process. nRollmed operated both an online
campaign and a call center. 400 leads were gathered by the online campaign, 101 of them were found to be
qualified during pre-screening, leading to 12 randomized subjects, or 25% of the patients recruited in the
time period that nRollmed was active.

sites over 6 months

400

leads gathered

101

pre-screened patients referred to sites

nRollmed contributes 25% of randomized subjects

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