Metz James M, Coyle Carolyn, Hudson Courtney, Hampshire Margaret
University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Med Internet Res. 2005 Jul 1;7(3):e24. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7.3.e24.
Many patients are now accessing the Internet to obtain cancer clinical trials information. However, services offering clinical trials recruitment information have not been well defined.
This study describes one of the first Web-based cancer clinical trials matching resources and the demographics of users who were successfully matched.
OncoLink is the Internet-based educational resource managed by the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center (UPCC) and serves between 1 and 2 million pages per month to over 385000 unique IP addresses. OncoLink launched one of the first clinical trials matching resources on the Internet that allowed patients to enter demographic data through a secure connection and be matched to clinical trials. For patients with matches to potential trials, appointments were facilitated with the principal investigators.
While we did not keep track of patients who could not be matched, 627 patients who submitted online applications between January 2002 and April 2003 were successfully matched for potential enrollment in clinical trials. The mean age of the patient population was 56 years (range 18-88 years). Males represented 60% of the patient population, and over 90% of users were Caucasian. Most of the applications were from patients with colorectal cancer (13%), lung cancer (14%), melanoma (10%), and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (9%).
This report shows that a significant number of patients are willing to use the Internet for enrolling in clinical trials. Care must be taken to reach patients from a variety of socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. This Internet resource helps to facilitate a consultation with a cancer patient who is prescreened and motivated to enroll in clinical trials.
现在许多患者通过互联网获取癌症临床试验信息。然而，提供临床试验招募信息的服务尚未得到明确界定。
本研究描述了首批基于网络的癌症临床试验匹配资源之一，以及成功匹配的用户人口统计学特征。
OncoLink是由宾夕法尼亚大学癌症中心（UPCC）管理的基于互联网的教育资源，每月为超过385000个独立IP地址提供100万至200万页面的服务。OncoLink推出了首批互联网临床试验匹配资源之一，允许患者通过安全连接输入人口统计学数据，并与临床试验进行匹配。对于与潜在试验匹配的患者，协助他们与主要研究者预约。
虽然我们没有跟踪无法匹配的患者，但在2002年1月至2003年4月期间提交在线申请的627名患者成功匹配，有可能入选临床试验。患者群体的平均年龄为56岁（范围18 - 88岁）。男性占患者群体的60%，超过90%的用户为白种人。大多数申请来自患有结直肠癌（13%）、肺癌（14%）、黑色素瘤（10%）和非霍奇金淋巴瘤（9%）的患者。
本报告表明，大量患者愿意使用互联网参与临床试验。必须注意覆盖来自各种社会经济和种族背景的患者。这种互联网资源有助于促进与经过预筛选且有意愿参与临床试验的癌症患者进行咨询。
