# Plain-language trial results returned to every participant within a year

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-moon-results-back-to-participants/  
OnCo record `idea-moon-results-back-to-participants` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

If you join a cancer trial you should be told what it found, in plain words, within twelve months of the results, including if the treatment did not work.

## Summary

Most trial participants never learn the results. The EU Clinical Trials Regulation requires lay summaries; enforcement and quality are patchy, and most other jurisdictions have no requirement. The proposal is a global norm: lay summary within 12 months of primary completion, delivered directly to participants, with negative results treated identically, and posting in registries as a condition of publication.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Returning results increases willingness to enrol in future trials among participants and their networks and increases timely reporting of negative trials.
- Rationale: Reciprocity is the moral basis of research participation; participants who receive results are more likely to recommend trials, and the requirement creates a deadline that also forces disclosure of negative findings.
- Proposed test: Compare enrolment attitudes and re-participation in cohorts who did and did not receive summaries; audit registry completeness where the rule is enforced versus not.
- Maturity: being-tested-at-scale
- Actor: regulator

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov: https://clinicaltrials.gov/

## Connected records

- bottlenecks: [Failures are hidden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-negative-results/), [Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/)

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