Adaptive Platform Trials

An “adaptive platform trial” (APT) is a clinical trial with a single master protocol in which multiple treatments or interventions are evaluated simultaneously.

APTs are an innovative and highly efficient trial design enabling researchers to compare multiple interventions across multiple domains in multiple patient groups. Adaptive platform designs offer flexible features such as dropping treatments for futility, declaring one or more treatments superior, or adding new treatments to be tested during the course of a trial.

Once established, they can run indefinitely as new interventions are added, and ineffective ones dropped. Efficiency is created by use of an existing trial infrastructure and the ability to “borrow” data across the trial groups.  

APTs require considerable planning, management and advanced statistical methodology and data management systems. Effective and extensive stakeholder engagement is crucial.

The Melbourne Children’s Trial Centre (MCTC) provides a wide range of services to support researchers embarking on APTs from experienced clinical trial and data managers to resources, documents, templates and SOPs.

If you are interested in starting or getting involved in an APT contact us at [email protected].