CT.gov Stopped-Trial Disclosure Gap
2026-03-29 | full-registry ct.gov audit | plots, figures, and e156 bundle
Series
Stopped-Trial Project

How silent do stopped trials become on CT.gov?

A standalone public project on stopped-trial disclosure, showing that withdrawn and suspended studies sit in one of the quietest parts of the older CT.gov record.

Withdrawn 100%
Suspended 99.3%
Reason missing 82.1%
Completed 73.1%

Project

This page treats final status as a pathway split, much like your other project work treats method branches: once a trial stops, the public record behaves very differently.

Withdrawn and suspended trials are nearly absent from the visible record, and missing stop reasons make the problem even worse.

Project readout

A standalone E156 project on how withdrawn, suspended, and terminated studies remain structurally quieter than completed CT.gov trials.

Withdrawn no results
100.0%
Older withdrawn studies
Withdrawn ghosts
81.9%
Neither visible
Suspended no results
99.3%
Older suspended studies
Reason missing no results
82.1%
Stopped-study warning sign
Final status
FINAL-STATUS GROUPS2-year no-results rate by final study statusCOMPLETED73.1%TERMINATED58.3%WITHDRAWN100.0%SUSPENDED99.3%
Withdrawn and suspended studies sit in a nearly total reporting blackout zone.
This page reframes final status as a visibility pathway, not just a descriptive endpoint field.
Read Across Projects

Across The Series

The split projects are meant to be read together because each isolates a different dimension of registry opacity rather than forcing every question into one leaderboard.

Industry
CT.gov Industry Disclosure Gap

Industry-focused missing-results stock, sponsor backlogs, and structural sparsity inside CT.gov.

Sponsor Classes
CT.gov Sponsor-Class Hiddenness

Sponsor-class comparisons on rate, stock, and structural hiddenness rather than one flattened ranking.

Phases
CT.gov Phase Reporting Gap

Phase-by-phase disclosure gaps showing how silence changes along the development pathway.

Structural
CT.gov Structural Missingness

Field-level missingness across publication links, IPD statements, descriptions, and locations.

Visibility
CT.gov Evidence Visibility Gap

Results-plus-publication visibility states showing how many older trials are fully visible, partly visible, or ghosted.

Cohorts
CT.gov Completion Cohort Debt

Completion-era reporting debt showing how older eligible cohorts drift on no-results and ghost-protocol rates.

Conditions
CT.gov Condition Hiddenness Map

Keyword-classified therapeutic-area hiddenness mapping across common condition families.

Concentration
CT.gov Sponsor Backlog Concentration

Concentration and inequality analysis showing how much unresolved stock sits inside a thin sponsor slice.

Rule Eras
CT.gov Rule-Era Reporting Gap

Policy-era comparisons across pre-FDAAA, FDAAA, and later CT.gov completion cohorts.

PubMed Audit
CT.gov Publication Undercount Audit

Sample-based external PubMed NCT audit testing how often CT.gov no-link records hide an external paper trail.

Oncology
CT.gov Oncology Hiddenness

Oncology-specific CT.gov hiddenness showing where cancer-trial stock, phases, and sponsors still go quiet.

Cardiovascular
CT.gov Cardiovascular Hiddenness

Cardiovascular CT.gov hiddenness showing how heart and vascular studies remain quiet across major phases and sponsors.

Metabolic
CT.gov Metabolic Hiddenness

Metabolic CT.gov hiddenness across obesity, diabetes, and related trial portfolios with large late-phase and NA stock.

Size
CT.gov Enrollment-Size Gap

Enrollment-size gradients showing how older small trials remain much quieter than larger registered studies.

Geography
CT.gov Geography-Scale Visibility

Site and country footprint analysis showing how larger trial geographies map onto much better public visibility.

Purpose
CT.gov Design-Purpose Hiddenness

Primary-purpose and allocation analysis showing which trial intents remain most obscured on CT.gov.

Delay
CT.gov Completion-Delay Debt

Registration-to-completion delay analysis showing short-cycle studies carry the heaviest reporting debt.

Architecture
CT.gov Trial-Architecture Gap

Arm-count and intervention-count analysis showing simpler trial architectures are often the quietest.

Interventions
CT.gov Intervention-Type Gap

Intervention-family analysis showing which declared treatment modalities remain quietest on older CT.gov records.

Countries
CT.gov Country Reporting Map

Named-country visibility analysis showing large geographic divides in older CT.gov reporting debt.

Outcomes
CT.gov Outcome-Density Gap

Outcome-count and outcome-description analysis showing sparse protocols are often the quietest CT.gov segment.

Actual Fields
CT.gov Actual-Field Discipline

Closed-study actual-field analysis showing missing actual dates and counts are a strong warning sign for opacity.