Background: With an increase in the complexity and cost of clinical trials and the advances in information technology, monitoring guidance issued by regulatory authorities recommends risk-adapted monitoring. To introduce the monitoring method for investigator-initiated investigational new drug (IND) trials using unapproved anticancer drugs, we performed exploratory retrospective analyses to identify risk factors for data quality.
Methods: To select investigator-initiated IND trials using unapproved anticancer drugs, we set the trial selection criteria. Data collection was performed by using audit trails and monitoring reports. Collected data were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analyses to identify the independent risk factors related to error.
Results: By trial selection criteria, 5 investigator-initiated IND trials using unapproved anticancer drugs were selected. The error rates of the total data, critical data, and noncritical data were 7.4%, 9.7%, and 5.9%, respectively. There was no difference between clinical research core hospitals certified by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and other hospitals in univariate analysis (odds ratio [OR], 1.00; 99% confidence interval [CI], 0.96-1.05; P = .9179). As the main independent risk factors related to error, critical data in the importance of data (OR, 1.28; 99% CI, 1.24-1.33; P < .0001) and groups with ≤3 patients after registration (OR, 1.12; 99% CI, 1.10-1.15; P < .0001) were significantly related to errors in multivariate analysis.
Conclusions: The results of this research suggest that the feasibility of risk-based monitoring and sampling source data verification was indicated for noncritical data and patients after the third case.
Keywords: RBM; clinical trial; data quality; investigator-initiated IND trial; risk-based monitoring.