A new analysis of more than 11,000 cancer clinical trials in the United States has revealed a sharply divided but interdependent research system, in which federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies tend to pursue different questions at different stages of the drug-development process. The study, published online in JAMA Oncology, suggests that industry-sponsored research dominates the overall clinical-trial landscape, particularly in studies of single-agent medicines, while federally supported trials are more likely to investigate complex treatment strategies, prevention, diagnostics, supportive care, and cancers that are difficult to study commercially. The findings offer one of the clearest large-scale comparisons to date of how public and private funding shape the evidence used to guide modern cancer care.
Researchers led by Joseph M. Unger, PhD, a biostatistician and health services researcher with the SWOG Cancer Research Network and a professor in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, examined records from ClinicalTrials.gov covering the period from 2008 through 2024. They included interventional trials that had opened at least one site in the United States. A trial was categorized as federally sponsored when a government agency, such as the National Institutes of Health, served as its lead sponsor. Studies led by pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies were classified as industry sponsored. Of the 11,681 trials that met the study criteria, 9,569, or 81.9 percent, were supported by industry.
The researchers found that the two funding sectors were not simply competing to conduct the same experiments. Instead, their portfolios appeared to occupy different positions within the cancer research ecosystem. Approximately 90 percent of all the trials analyzed listed cancer treatment as their primary purpose, but the nature of those treatments varied substantially by sponsor. Industry-backed studies were more likely to evaluate a single drug or biologic, a design that can efficiently determine whether a specific product is safe and effective enough to advance toward regulatory approval. Federally sponsored studies, by contrast, more often examined interventions that do not fit neatly into a single-product business model or require longer-term, system-wide evaluation.
This distinction reflects the economic and scientific realities of clinical research. A pharmaceutical company generally has a direct interest in generating definitive evidence for a particular compound, often through carefully controlled trials designed to support approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These studies may begin with very early phase I testing, which focuses primarily on safety, tolerability, dose escalation, and pharmacokinetics, before moving into larger phase III trials that compare the investigational treatment with an established standard. The analysis showed that industry trials were especially common at these two ends of the development pathway: very early phase I studies and later phase III trials. Federally supported studies were more frequently phase II investigations, a stage often focused on detecting preliminary antitumor activity and refining how a treatment should be used.
Federal trials were also much more likely to investigate treatment de-escalation. Such studies ask whether patients can receive less therapy without losing the benefits of treatment. A de-escalation trial might test a lower dose, a shorter course, fewer treatment cycles, or a less intensive combination of therapies. These questions are increasingly important as cancer survival improves and clinicians seek to reduce long-term toxicity, infertility, organ damage, cognitive effects, and the financial burden of care. Yet de-escalation can be difficult to commercialize because its central outcome may be the safe reduction of treatment rather than the introduction of a new product. Public funding is therefore often essential for answering whether “less” can be just as effective as “more” for carefully selected patients.
The federal portfolio also showed a greater emphasis on multimodality treatment, in which several forms of therapy are integrated into a single strategy. These approaches may combine systemic drugs with surgery, radiation, transplantation, immunotherapy, or other interventions. A trial might, for example, evaluate chemotherapy before surgery, followed by radiation and targeted maintenance treatment, while measuring not only tumor control but also surgical complications, quality of life, and long-term survival. Such protocols are scientifically complex because their results depend on timing, sequencing, patient selection, and coordination across multiple specialties. They may also involve several products or procedures owned by different organizations, making them less attractive as conventional industry-led studies.
Non-drug interventions were another major area in which federally supported research was more prominent. These trials included surgery, transplantation, behavioral interventions, screening strategies, diagnostics, health services research, cancer prevention, and supportive care. The technical importance of these studies is substantial: cancer outcomes are determined not only by the biological activity of a drug but also by how early disease is detected, whether patients can access treatment, how symptoms are managed, and whether evidence-based care is delivered consistently. Diagnostic trials can evaluate biomarkers that predict response or resistance, while health services studies may examine disparities, treatment delays, adherence, and the performance of care systems across different communities.
Federally sponsored trials were also considerably more likely to address childhood cancers and rare cancers, including diseases with fewer than 40,000 diagnoses in the United States each year. Small patient populations create a fundamental challenge for clinical research. A rare cancer may have too few potential participants to support a conventional commercial strategy, even when the disease represents a serious unmet medical need. Pediatric cancers pose additional challenges because treatment must be evaluated in developing bodies, with attention to lifelong effects that may appear decades after therapy. Publicly supported networks can assemble patients across institutions, standardize protocols, and maintain research infrastructure for conditions that would otherwise struggle to attract sustained investment. The study found that the gap between federal and industry participation in rare-cancer trials narrowed over the period examined, suggesting that private-sector interest in some underserved diseases may be growing.
Despite their distinctive role, federally sponsored studies represented a much smaller share of the national clinical-trial portfolio. The authors estimate that, compared with federally supported trials, roughly nine out of every ten participants enrolled in industry-sponsored cancer trials. This imbalance has implications beyond funding statistics because the questions asked in clinical trials determine which forms of evidence become available to doctors and patients. If industry continues to concentrate on commercially promising single-agent drugs, important questions about prevention, supportive care, treatment combinations, de-escalation, access, and implementation may receive less attention. Unger and his colleagues describe the relationship between the sectors as complementary: federal research often contributes foundational science, trial infrastructure, and early efficacy studies, while industry frequently leads the large, late-stage trials that establish whether a treatment can achieve regulatory approval. After approval, federally supported investigators may then test the drug in combinations, different disease settings, or treatment plans involving surgery and radiation.
The researchers caution that this complementary model should not be mistaken for a guarantee that every clinically important question will be answered. Public funding must support the infrastructure required to conduct independent, technically demanding trials, while industry participation remains critical for translating promising discoveries into approved therapies and widely available products. The findings point toward a cancer research system in which neither sector can fully replace the other. Industry resources can accelerate drug development, but federal investment is often needed to study questions whose benefits are broadly shared, difficult to monetize, or relevant only to small patient populations. The analysis was supported by the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutch Cancer Center and The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research. In addition to Unger, the study team included Hong Xiao, PhD; Michael L. LeBlanc, PhD; and Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS.
Subject of Research: Cancer clinical trials and sponsorship patterns
Article Title: Federal and Industry Sponsorship in US Cancer Clinical Trials
News Publication Date: 20-Aug-2026
Web References: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2026.3026
References: Unger JM, Xiao H, LeBlanc ML, Hershman DL, et al. “Federal and Industry Sponsorship in US Cancer Clinical Trials.” JAMA Oncology, published online August 20, 2026. DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2026.3026
Keywords: cancer research, clinical trials, federal funding, industry funding, pharmaceutical research, oncology, cancer drug development, rare cancers, pediatric cancers, treatment de-escalation, multimodality therapy, health services research, clinical research policy
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