[Editorial] Rethinking trial eligibility in the NCD era (Lancet Oncology)

Patient eligibility represents one of the most challenging factors in the design of a clinical trial. In this issue of The Lancet Oncology, a study of necitumumab plus pemetrexed and cisplatin for first-line treatment of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer lists one of its exclusion criteria as patients having symptomatic brain metastases, despite this being a common occurrence in this setting. This exclusion criterion, however, is just one example of the typically long list of prohibitions in many clinical trials.