ABSTRACT
Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed healthcare organizations. Here, we describe the attitude among Italian physicians toward referring patients to early-phase clinical trials during the pandemic. Methods: We analyzed the responses recorded in the first 72 hours from the beginning of the survey. A 20-question web survey was sent to all the associates of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology. Results: Ninety-five physicians completed the survey;87 (96%) were medical oncologists. Table 1 summarizes participants' characteristics. Overall, 37% of the respondents work in an early clinical trial unit. The vast majority of interviewees (74%) already used to refer patients to early clinical trials in the pre- COVID era. Among these, about 30% sent fewer patients during the pandemic particularly due to logistical issues. Interestingly, 25 (26%) never referred patients because of ineffective networking among institutions. It will take more than 12 months to return to pre-pandemic attitude according to half of the physicians. Most of the respondents affirm that one possible tool to facilitate the recovery is: fostering the clinical research network, favouring alliances between referral and satellite centers, and strengthening telemedicine. More than 70% of participants believe that the COVID-19 pandemic will have an impact on the development of new molecules in the coming years both due to a decrease in the number of open studies and to a diversion of funds towards Covid-19 research. Conclusions: In this analysis, we intended to offer an early snapshot of the Covid -19 effects on early phase trials in Italy. One-third of the participants had to decrease the number of referred patients due to the difficulties of a system exposed to unprecedented stress. Furthermore, the challenges of the last year will have repercussions on drug development in the coming years for the majority of interviewees.