Who is actually running cancer trials right now
Ask most people who runs cancer trials and they will say drug companies. The registry tells a more mixed story.
Among studies registered with a start date since 1 July 2026, the most frequent lead sponsors are:
- National Cancer Institute (NCI) — 22 studies
- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center — 21 studies
- Fudan University — 20 studies
- City of Hope Medical Center — 14 studies
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — 10 studies
- Sichuan Baili Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. — 10 studies
Academic medical centres and national institutes dominate that list. Cancer centres run large numbers of their own investigator-initiated studies, each registered separately, while a pharmaceutical company may run fewer but far larger trials across many countries.
Why counting studies is not counting effort
A single Phase 3 trial can enrol thousands of participants across dozens of sites and cost more than a hundred small Phase 1 studies combined. Counting registry records measures activity, not investment, and the two are very different things.
It is a useful distinction when reading any claim about who is “leading” research in a field. Leading by what measure?
Counts taken from the ClinicalTrials.gov API on 7 October 2026, covering studies with a registered start date on or after 1 July 2026. Registry numbers move as records are added and updated, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure.