Introduction: In this study, we use data from publicly available clinical trial registries to analyze the distribution of urologic clinical trial sites by countries and correlate this with the global burden of disease. Methods: We performed a search query on ClinicalTrials.gov and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) for clinical trials related to “prostatic neoplasms, urinary bladder neoplasms, kidney neoplasms, urolithiasis, urinary tract infections, and lower urinary tract symptoms.” Data from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 was obtained for these diseases to compare the number of clinical trials being performed in individual countries to incidence and disability within that country. Results: Using the ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP registries, the search terms were individually queried, identifying 4,169 trials and the results were summarized in Table 1. The distribution of clinical trials sites were graphically represented using choropleth maps (Figure 1a-f). For oncologic clinical trials, LMICs less than 4% of all clinical trials, which is less than their representation of urologic clinical trials for benign conditions (z = -16.05, p < 0.001). Simple linear regression modeling demonstrated a poor correlation between the number of clinical trials and the burden of disease for prostate cancer (R2 = 0.50), bladder cancer (R2 = 0.40), kidney cancer (R2 = 0.40), urolithiasis (R2 = 0.09), urinary tract infections (R2 = 0.12), and lower urinary tract symptoms (R2 = 0.09). Conclusions: A majority of urologic clinical trials are performed in high income countries with a disparity between the number of clinical trials being performed and the burden of disease within the country. SOURCE OF Funding: No funding was utilized for this research.
