Boston, MA Clinical Trials Report — July 2026

Boston participants should act now if they match a study nearing enrollment: 169 recruiting trials are expected to close within the next 90 days, including 28 that accept healthy volunteers. Breast cancer leads the closing-soon list with 9 trials, followed by prostate cancer with 7 and colorectal cancer with 4. Boston also opened 51 new trials in July, up from 42 in June.

Boston now has 2,645 recruiting trials across 623 research facilities. That makes the city a major Massachusetts center for oncology, hospital-based research, medical devices, behavioral studies, and healthy-volunteer research. Enrollment can end before a projected closing date if a study reaches its target, so people who may qualify should contact sites soon.

Closing windows for patients and healthy volunteers

The largest group of closing-soon opportunities involves cancer, but several noncancer categories are also represented. The conditions with the most studies approaching their enrollment deadlines are:

• Breast cancer (9 trials)
• Prostate cancer (7 trials)
• Colorectal cancer (4 trials)
• Long COVID (3 trials)
• Lung cancer (3 trials)
• Type 1 diabetes (3 trials)
• Multiple myeloma (3 trials)
• Melanoma (3 trials)
• Metastatic prostate cancer (3 trials)
• Recurrent glioblastoma (3 trials)

Healthy volunteers have 28 closing-soon options among the 169 studies nearing their deadlines. Across Boston overall, 305 trials are recruiting healthy volunteers. Requirements vary and may include age limits, medication restrictions, health screening, travel to the research site, or multiple visits.

New July studies include major Phase 3 drug trials

July’s new-trial mix is led by 16 drug studies, followed by 12 device studies and 10 behavioral studies. There are also studies classified as other, procedures, biological products, and diagnostic tests. Cancer and obesity or overweight each account for 2 new trials, while cystic fibrosis also accounts for 2. Acute kidney injury, acute myeloid leukemia, ankle and ligament problems, aging, and aphasia are among the other newly represented areas.

• NCT07720284 is AstraZeneca’s Phase 3 study of dato-DXd plus rilvegostomig compared with standard care for adults with high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial cancer after surgery. The planned enrollment is 915 participants.
• NCT07700979 is Akeso’s Phase 3 study of cadonilimab combined with chemotherapy, compared with chemotherapy with or without nivolumab, for previously untreated, unresectable, or metastatic HER2-negative gastric or gastroesophageal junction cancer. It plans to enroll 900 participants.
• NCT07728188 is AbbVie’s Phase 3 study comparing injected etentamig plus oral pomalidomide with standard therapies for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Planned enrollment is 520 participants.
• NCT07735442, sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is the BRIDGE-SIC Efficacy Trial. It tests whether large-language-model-generated serious-illness conversation summaries delivered to clinicians affect care for hospitalized and outpatient patients. The study plans to include 600 participants.
• NCT07719049, sponsored by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a healthy-volunteer study of FaceAge, an artificial-intelligence assessment of biological age from facial photographs. It plans to enroll 10,000 participants and will examine how estimates change over time and what factors influence them.
• NCT07731425, sponsored by the London School of Economics and Political Science, studies whether cancer patients better understand survival benefits when overall-survival information is provided alongside progression-free-survival information. It plans to enroll 3,000 current or former cancer patients.

Boston’s busiest research facilities

Massachusetts General Hospital is the city’s largest listed research hub, with 611 trials. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute follows with 340, while Brigham and Women’s Hospital has 313. These institutions give Boston particularly strong access to oncology trials, but they also run studies in many other specialties.

• Massachusetts General Hospital (611 trials)
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (340 trials)
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital (313 trials)
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (262 trials)
• Dana Farber Cancer Institute (219 trials)
• Boston Children’s Hospital (219 trials)
• Tufts Medical Center (110 trials)
• Boston Medical Center (99 trials)

Additional listed locations include a Research Site with 62 trials, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center with 58, and VA Boston Healthcare System Jamaica Plain Campus with 26. Boston Children’s Hospital is a key location for families, while the major adult hospitals and cancer centers provide the densest concentration of late-stage oncology studies.

Who may qualify for July’s new studies?

Of the 51 new trials, 7 accept healthy volunteers. Eleven include children, two are female-only, and one is male-only. Older adults are included in 44 new studies, creating opportunities for people across a wide age range.

Local academic institutions dominate July’s sponsorship activity. Massachusetts General Hospital sponsors 13 new trials, followed by Brigham and Women’s Hospital with 5, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with 4, and Tufts University with 3. AstraZeneca sponsors 2 new studies, as do Boston Medical Center and Boston University Charles River Campus. Overall, 39 new trials are categorized as other-sponsored, 11 are industry-sponsored, and 1 is sponsored by NIH.

Nearby Massachusetts alternatives

People willing to travel beyond central Boston can also look in nearby Massachusetts communities. Recruiting trials are listed in Burlington (2), Chestnut Hill (1), Belmont (1), Jamaica Plain (1), Somerville (1), Wellesley (1), and Gloucester (1). Jamaica Plain may be especially practical for participants considering the VA Boston Healthcare System campus.

July’s total of 51 new openings continues a variable 2026 pattern: 62 in February, 49 in March, 43 in April, 59 in May, and 42 in June. With new studies continuing to appear and many existing trials approaching their enrollment deadlines, Boston patients and healthy volunteers should review eligibility early and watch local sites for additional August openings.