{"entity":{"id":"idea-tr1-rare-cancer-trial-in-a-box","kind":"idea","name":"Trial-in-a-box: a preconfigured protocol kit any hospital can open for a rare cancer","aka":[],"tldr":"For rare cancers, the patient is often at a hospital that has no trial. A ready-made kit with the protocol, consent forms, database and shipping already set up would let that hospital enrol them within days.","summary":"A cooperative group or rare-cancer consortium maintains modular, pre-approved protocol packages for rare histologies: template protocol with pre-negotiated ethics approval under a central IRB, eConsent, cloud EDC, sample-shipping kits and a remote investigator-of-record model where local clinicians act as sub-investigators. Combined with just-in-time activation, the kit lets any accredited hospital enrol its one patient.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Trials enrol too few, too slowly): Unger et al., Systematic review of barriers to cancer trial participation (JNCI 2019)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djy221"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["sarcoma","neuroendocrine","mesothelioma","cholangiocarcinoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["curie-nki-eortc"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["basket-umbrella-platform"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-trial-enrolment","b-rare-cancers"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Rare-cancer trials using a trial-in-a-box model will enrol from at least three times as many sites and reach accrual targets faster than conventional multicentre rare-cancer trials.","rationale":"Rare-cancer trials fail on accrual because patients are scattered; every patient not enrolled is a large fraction of the target. Paediatric oncology achieves high enrolment through standardised cooperative-group infrastructure that adult rare-cancer trials lack.","test":"Deploy a kit for one rare adult sarcoma or neuroendocrine subtype across a national network and compare enrolment per eligible incident case with a historical trial in the same subtype.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"research","cost":"medium","horizonYears":3},"route":"/ideas/idea-tr1-rare-cancer-trial-in-a-box/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"cholangiocarcinoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Biliary tract cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)","route":"/cancers/cholangiocarcinoma/"},{"id":"mesothelioma","kind":"cancer","name":"Mesothelioma","route":"/cancers/mesothelioma/"},{"id":"neuroendocrine","kind":"cancer","name":"Neuroendocrine tumours","route":"/cancers/neuroendocrine/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"}],"company":[{"id":"curie-nki-eortc","kind":"company","name":"EORTC","route":"/companies/curie-nki-eortc/"}],"term":[{"id":"basket-umbrella-platform","kind":"term","name":"Basket, umbrella, and platform trials","route":"/terms/basket-umbrella-platform/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-rare-cancers","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Rare and paediatric cancers without markets","route":"/bottlenecks/b-rare-cancers/"},{"id":"b-trial-enrolment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Trials enrol too few, too slowly","route":"/bottlenecks/b-trial-enrolment/"}]}}