Breast cancer tops most-studied diseases list for fourth year but trial attrition rate rises, finds new Phesi analysis

• 1 in 3 Phase II trials were terminated in 2024
• Non-small cell lung cancer now among world’s most researched diseases as COVID falls out of top 5 

Boston, USA. 21st Jan, 2025: Phesi, a global provider of patient-centric data analytics, has released the results of its annual global analysis of all clinical trials conducted in 2024, using data from its AI-driven Trial Accelerator™ platform (fig.1.). The analysis of 67,469 recruiting clinical trials reveals that breast cancer is the world’s most studied disease for the fourth consecutive year – followed by solid tumors, stroke, prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (table 1).

Phesi’s analysis also found that the clinical trial attrition rate remained high throughout 2024. One in three (31%) clinical trials were terminated during Phase II – rising from 29% in 2023 and representing a 50% increase from an average of 20% before the COVID-19 pandemic (fig. 2.). This indicates that the industry is increasingly wasting tens of millions of dollars on trials that ultimately fail. 

“There are two main forces driving treatment innovation: the unmet needs of patients and our improved understanding of disease,” commented Dr Gen Li, Phesi CEO and founder. “The former is why breast cancer unsurprisingly remains the world’s most-researched disease, since it is the top killer among women with cancer. The latter explains NSCLC’s re-entry into the top 5, since we have seen an increase in the number of biomarker-specific trials in this disease. This focus on precision medicine is positive news for patients – more precise trials are likely to achieve both a higher success rate and improved ROI.”

2024 saw NSCLC re-enter Phesi’s ranking of the top 5 most-studied diseases for the first time since 2021, while COVID-19 dropped out of the ranking for the first time since its entry. The analysis reveals that more than half (51%) of all NSCLC trials are now biomarker-specific. The full report from Phesi contains further data exploring the current state of NSCLC clinical development and details the biomarkers that are of most interest to researchers.

Dr Li added, “We are disappointed that the Phase II clinical trial attrition rate remained so high in 2024. We hoped that we would see a reduction in the attrition rate now that the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us. This attrition rate will inevitably have a knock-on effect in Phase III and a significant negative impact on companies’ ROI. It is clearer than ever that sponsors need to focus on utilizing data science, AI and clinical data analytics for precision trials: ensuring every aspect of trial design is optimized, along with identifying the most suitable investigator sites, to deliver smarter trials and faster cures.”

Phesi has produced yearly reports on the world’s most studied diseases since 2021, and has published multiple interim reports exploring various elements of clinical development. The reports are based on data from Phesi’s AI-driven Trial Accelerator platform, the world’s largest contextualized clinical trial database. 

To read the full report with additional analysis, visit: https://info.phesi.com/24_most_studied