UC San Diego

Introduction

The reporting of approaches facilitating the most efficient and timely recruitment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients into pharmacologic trials is fundamental to much-needed therapeutic progress.

Methods

T2 Protect AD (T2), a phase 2 randomized placebo-controlled trial of troriluzole in mild to moderate AD, used multiple recruitment strategies.

Results

T2 exceeded its recruitment target, enrolling 350 participants between July 2018 and December 2019 (randomization rate: 0.87 randomizations/site/month, or 3-fold greater than recent trials of mild to moderate AD). The vast majority (98%) of participants were enrolled during a 10-month window of intense promotion in news media, TV and radio advertisements, and social media. The distribution of primary recruitment sources included: existing patient lists at participating sites (72.3%), news media (12.3%), physician referral (6.0%), word of mouth (3.1%), and paid advertising (2.9%).

Discussion

The rapid recruitment of participants with mild to moderate AD was achieved through a range of approaches with varying success.