United States Clinical Trials Report — July 2026

People considering a clinical trial should check eligibility now: 1,804 recruiting studies across the United States are projected to close within the next 90 days. Of these, 532 accept healthy volunteers. Screening and enrollment can take time, and projected closing dates may change, so waiting until the final weeks could mean missing an opportunity.

The national research market remains large, with 22,100 recruiting trials spread across 2,756 cities and 43,076 research sites. July added 726 new studies, a decrease from 761 in June and 767 in May. Even with the monthly slowdown, the number of active opportunities gives patients and healthy adults many paths to explore.

Closing-soon trials create the month’s most urgent opportunities

Breast cancer studies represent the largest group approaching closure, followed by depression, stroke, cancer overall, and obesity. These categories include people who may be seeking treatment studies, prevention research, behavioral programs, or other forms of clinical investigation. Healthy adults should also act promptly: 21 closing-soon studies are categorized under healthy participants, while hundreds of additional studies may accept healthy volunteers even when their primary condition label is different.

• Breast cancer — 40 closing-soon trials
• Depression — 28
• Stroke — 27
• Cancer — 26
• Obesity — 24
• Prostate cancer — 22
• Healthy participants — 21
• Aging and hypertension — 17 each
• Cardiovascular diseases — 16

Patients with breast cancer, stroke, depression, prostate cancer, or obesity should search both by diagnosis and by location. A trial listed as recruiting may still have limited appointment capacity at individual sites. Prospective participants should review the eligibility criteria, contact the study team, and ask whether screening must be completed before the projected closing date.

California, Texas, and New York lead the national expansion

New trial activity is concentrated in states with large populations, major academic medical centers, specialist hospitals, and established research infrastructure. California opened the most new studies in July with 135, followed by Texas with 119 and New York with 87. Florida and Ohio also passed 70 new trials, showing that opportunities are distributed across both coastal and interior research hubs.

• California — 135 new trials
• Texas — 119
• New York — 87
• Florida — 72
• Ohio — 71
• Massachusetts — 59
• Illinois — 52
• Pennsylvania — 43
• North Carolina — 39
• Colorado — 34
• Maryland — 33
• Tennessee and Virginia — 31 each
• Arizona — 29
• Georgia — 28

The pattern shows several regional clusters. California and Texas form the strongest western and south-central centers, while New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina create a dense Northeast and Mid-Atlantic corridor. Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee, and Florida provide major Midwestern and Southern concentrations. Colorado and Arizona add important western access points outside California.

Residents of states outside these leading groups may still be able to participate, particularly in national registries, online behavioral studies, database research, and studies with multiple sites. However, treatment trials often require repeated visits, so people in areas with fewer research centers may face greater travel demands. Searching neighboring states and asking about travel support can broaden the available choices.

Obesity, cancer, stroke, and multiple sclerosis shape July’s new studies

Breast cancer was the most common condition among newly opened trials, with 13 studies. Obesity and cancer each appeared in 11, followed by stroke, prostate cancer, and multiple sclerosis. Healthy-volunteer categories also featured prominently, with eight new trials labeled for healthy volunteers and eight labeled healthy.

• Breast cancer — 13 new trials
• Obesity and overweight — 11
• Cancer — 11
• Healthy volunteers — 8
• Healthy participants — 8
• Obesity — 8
• Stroke — 7
• Prostate cancer and multiple sclerosis — 6 each
• Hypertension — 5

Drug studies were the leading type of new research, with 238 openings. Behavioral studies followed with 174, while other research accounted for 135 and devices for 134. The remaining new studies involved procedures, biological products, dietary supplements, radiation, diagnostic tests, and combination products. This range means participants are not limited to medication trials: surveys, digital interventions, devices, screening programs, and health-services research are also expanding.

Large national studies and notable sponsors

July’s most visible new studies include several unusually large database, screening, genetics, and prevention projects. These studies may not require the frequent in-person visits associated with drug trials, making them potentially accessible to people far from major medical centers.

• NCT07713901 — Novo Nordisk A/S is sponsoring a database linkage study examining whether GLP-1 receptor agonists used for type 2 diabetes and weight management are associated with medullary thyroid carcinoma. The study lists 93,600,000 participants and uses real-world data rather than conventional recruitment alone.
• NCT07728123 — Westat’s Screen2Prevent study evaluates targeted, universal opt-in, and universal opt-out HIV screening approaches in emergency departments. It plans to involve 84,000 participants.
• NCT07682610 — The Kentucky Quality Improvement Implementation Lung Cancer Screening study examines statewide optimization of lung cancer screening through the QUILS system, with planned participation of 35,500.
• NCT07712874 — The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health is screening volunteers interested in pain, emotion, mood, and decision-making research. The study lists 10,000 participants.
• NCT07714044 — Rutgers University’s genetics study of blood cancers seeks affected and unaffected participants nationally through online surveys, mailed saliva collection, and genetic analysis. Planned enrollment is 10,000.
• NCT07719049 — Brigham and Women’s Hospital is studying how FaceAge estimates from facial photographs change over time in healthy volunteers, with planned enrollment of 10,000.
• NCT07738003 — The University of Iowa’s perinatal autism genetics and epigenetics study follows pregnancy and early childhood experiences, inviting pregnant women and planning enrollment of 7,200.

Other large studies include University of Southern California research on e-cigarette social-media marketing among youth, University of Michigan work on hospital readmission interventions, the Life Raft Group’s GIST patient registry, and Stanford’s online comparison of human-created and AI-generated art. These examples show how clinical research increasingly includes registries, online participation, health-system data, and public-health interventions alongside traditional treatment studies.

Academic and public institutions led the month’s sponsor list. Ohio State University opened 20 new trials, followed by the VA Office of Research and Development with 14 and Massachusetts General Hospital with 13. UCSF and the University of Alabama at Birmingham each opened 10, while University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston opened nine each. Duke University opened eight.

Across sponsor classifications, studies listed as other accounted for 513 new trials, compared with 172 industry-sponsored studies. Federal sponsors accounted for 21, NIH for 14, networks for five, and one study was classified as unknown. This balance reflects a broad research environment in which universities, hospitals, government agencies, nonprofit groups, and pharmaceutical companies all contribute.

New York, Boston, and Houston are the busiest city-level markets

At the city level, New York led July with 55 new trials. Boston and Houston followed with 51 each. Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Nashville completed the leading group.

• New York, New York — 55 new trials
• Boston, Massachusetts, and Houston, Texas — 51 each
• Chicago, Illinois — 39
• Columbus, Ohio — 37
• Dallas, Texas — 27
• Los Angeles, California — 25
• San Francisco, California — 22
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — 21
• Nashville, Tennessee — 20

These cities benefit from large hospitals, medical schools, cancer centers, specialized investigators, and high patient populations. For local residents, this can mean more choices and shorter travel distances. For people elsewhere, national online studies and multi-site trials may be more practical than studies requiring repeated hospital visits. A city’s high number of new openings does not guarantee that every study is suitable, so participants should compare the condition, age range, visit schedule, and transportation requirements.

Healthy volunteers and specific age groups should search now

Healthy adults have a substantial national opportunity: 190 of July’s 726 new trials accept healthy volunteers, and 5,107 healthy-volunteer studies are recruiting nationwide in total. Opportunities include screening research, genetics, behavioral studies, technology assessments, and studies of normal health rather than treatment of a disease.

Several eligibility groups may find targeted opportunities. July’s new trials include 119 studies that allow children, 66 female-only studies, and 14 male-only studies. Older adults appear in 587 new-trial eligibility criteria. Parents, older adults, and people seeking gender-specific studies should check the age and sex requirements carefully, since these details can determine whether an initial inquiry is worthwhile.

The six-month trend shows that new openings have generally eased from 806 in February and 790 in March to 726 in July, after 693 in April and 767 in May. The August figure currently shown is 219, which may reflect an incomplete month rather than a final total. Future reports will clarify whether July’s decline is temporary or part of a broader shift.

For now, the best strategy is to search immediately for closing-soon studies, then review newly opened trials in nearby states and online programs. As national registries, real-world-data projects, and digital research continue to grow, the second half of 2026 may offer more ways to participate without living next door to a major research hospital.