Trial reportBMJ open2022
Uptake of the multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) adaptive platform approach: a trial-registry review of late-phase randomised clinical trials.
Trial report in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Definitions of clinical study outcome measures for cardiovascular diseases: the European Unified Registries for Heart Care Evaluation and Randomized Trials (EuroHeart).European heart journal · 2025Pooled it
- The use of master protocols for efficient trial design to evaluate radiotherapy interventions: a systematic review.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2024Pooled it
- Characteristics, Progression, and Output of Randomized Platform Trials: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- Neoadjuvant PARP inhibitor scheduling in BRCA1 and BRCA2 related breast cancer: PARTNER, a randomized phase II/III trial.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Facilitating access to clinical data from a randomized controlled trial of complex adaptive design.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- A Multi-Stage Drop-the-Loser Design With Superiority Boundaries.Statistics in medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- How to design a ROCI (Response Over Continuous Intervention) randomised trial: guidance and a case study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Clinical Trial Simulation: Planning With the OCTAVE Framework, Implementation and Validation Principles.Statistics in medicine · 2026Article
- The patient-centric development of an inclusive multi-arm multi-stage trial for Parkinson's disease.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Re-Innovation in Clinical Trial Designs Based on Precision Therapy.Cancer innovation · 2025Article
- Practical guidance for conducting high-quality and rapid interim analyses in adaptive clinical trials.BMC medicine · 2025Review
- Response adaptive randomisation in clinical trials: Current practice, gaps and future directions.Statistical methods in medical research · 2025Article
- Evidence-Based Approaches to Quality Improvement: A Narrative Review of Integrating Bayesian Adaptive Trials Into Health Services.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Review
- Platform trials-an emerging methodology for perioperative medicine: a narrative review.Perioperative medicine (London, England) · 2025Review
- Adaptations and Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects in Platform Trials-Protocol for Two Methodological Studies.Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica · 2025Article
- Developing an adaptive platform trial for evaluation of medical treatments for Crohn's disease.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2025Article
- A comparison of frequentist and Bayesian approaches to the Personalised Randomised Controlled Trial (PRACTical)-design and analysis considerations.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Article
- INCEPT: The Intensive Care Platform Trial-Design and protocol.Acta anaesthesiologica Scandinavica · 2025Article
- Past, present, and future of Phase 3 vaccine trial design: rethinking statistics for the 21st century.Clinical and experimental immunology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFor medical conditions with numerous interventions worthy of investigation, there are many advantages of a multi-arm multi-stage (MAMS) platform trial approach. However, there is currently limited knowledge on uptake of the MAMS design, especially in the late-phase setting. We sought to examine uptake and characteristics of late-phase MAMS platform trials, to enable better planning for teams considering future use of this approach.
designWe examined uptake of registered, late-phase MAMS platforms in the EU clinical trials register, Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number registry, Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform and databases: PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Library, Global Health Library and EMBASE. Searching was performed and review data frozen on 1 April 2021. MAMS platforms were defined as requiring two or more comparison arms, with two or more trial stages, with an interim analysis allowing for stopping of recruitment to arms and typically the ability to add new intervention arms.
results62 late-phase clinical trials using an MAMS approach were included. Overall, the number of late-phase trials using the MAMS design has been increasing since 2001 and been accelerated by COVID-19. The majority of current MAMS platforms were either targeting infectious diseases (52%) or cancers (29%) and all identified trials were for treatment interventions. 89% (55/62) of MAMS platforms were evaluating medications, with 45% (28/62) of the MAMS platforms having at least one or more repurposed medication as a comparison arm.
conclusionsHistorically, late-phase trials have adhered to long-established standard (two-arm) designs. However, the number of late-phase MAMS platform trials is increasing, across a range of different disease areas. This study highlights the potential scope of MAMS platform trials and may assist research teams considering use of this approach in the late-phase randomised clinical trial setting. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019153910.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.