Case Study — Relapsed Breast Cancer

Overview

High returns on recruitment campaigns for oncology indications are often hard-won. This truism was compounded for this Phase 3 study by the very particular recurrent breast cancer patient we sought.

Our client felt the need to screen patients thoroughly prior to passing them on to sites, insisting on a depth of information more typically covered by an HCP. As a result, site receptivity to receiving any incoming referrals, to accepting the extent of pre-screening information collected and to expediting processing referrals varied significantly.

With the sponsor wedded to an expansive prescreen, our job entailed ensuring that we didn’t overwhelm patients with overly detailed and hard-to-answer questions, while also collaborating closely with sites to process referrals.

Solutions

Given the slow and uneven referral processing initially conducted by sites, it became clear that BBK needed to devise customized site-specific approaches and interventions.

Instituting monthly “Referral Health Checks” per site proved essential to our ability to track both call center and site-level performance — enabling us to escalate unresponsive sites to the sponsor for assistance.

With close collaboration, we were ultimately able to identify and prioritize those sites with the best potential for leveraging our services.

Impact

By prioritizing our support where we could have the greatest impact, key sites excelled; sites that declined any support saw precipitous drops in screening rates by comparison.

BBK’s outreach initiatives generated five consented patients in 151 days, compared to the five generated prior to our involvement that required over 431 days.

The ambient effect of our efforts reduced screening timelines for 17 supported sites by 280 days — increasing the screening rate by 180%. In contrast, non-supported sites’ screening rates decreased by 57% during this same time period.

Without BBK’s assistance, achieving ten consented patients would have taken an additional two years.

180% Increase in screening rates at BBK-supported sites
97% Referral target achieved (109 of 112)
2+ Additional years that would have been required to reach enrollment goals without BBK