# Give negative trials plenary slots at the big cancer conferences

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-negative-plenaries/  
OnCo record `idea-tr2-negative-plenaries` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Conferences headline the trials that worked, while most negative trials end up as posters or are never submitted. A standing plenary at ASCO, ESMO and AACR for negative and practice-reversing trials, with a discussant drawing lessons for design and biology, would make the failures impossible to miss.

## Summary

Practice-changing negative trials (for example those that stop an established practice) are sometimes presented, but most negative trials are relegated to posters or never submitted. A standing plenary session at ASCO, ESMO and AACR for high-importance negative and reversal trials, with a discussant focused on lessons for design and biology, would raise the status of reporting failure.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Introduction of a negative-results plenary increases submission of negative phase 3 trials to the meeting by at least 50% and their subsequent full publication rate.
- Rationale: Conference prestige drives what is submitted and written up. The ASCO 'Trials in Progress' session shows that a new session type can change behaviour.
- Proposed test: Run the session at one meeting for two years; count negative-trial submissions and publications before and after.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: research

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Failures are hidden): Anderson et al., Compliance with results reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov (NEJM 2015): https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1409364

## Connected records

- institutions: [American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)](https://onco.cc/institutions/aacr/), [American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/asco/), [European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/esmo/)
- bottlenecks: [Failures are hidden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-negative-results/), [Knowledge reaches practice too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-knowledge-diffusion/)
- key papers: [Compliance with results reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-anderson-n-engl-j-med/)

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