Частые вопросы
What is China's official clinical trial registry?
The Drug Clinical Trial Registration and Information Platform (chinadrugtrials.org.cn), run by the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), is China's mandatory national registry — every drug trial approved to run in China must be registered and publicly disclosed there, including domestic trials that appear nowhere else. Two complementary registries exist: ClinicalTrials.gov (US, English) and ChiCTR (the WHO-recognized Chinese academic registry).
Does the CDE platform have an English version?
No. Chinadrugtrials.org.cn is Chinese-only. You can use your browser's built-in translation to navigate, but search results are more reliable if you search with Chinese terms — our guide below lists the Chinese names of common cancer types and the platform's search fields. ChiCTR and ClinicalTrials.gov both have proper English interfaces.
How do I find recruiting cancer trials in China?
Start with ClinicalTrials.gov: search your condition, filter Study status → Recruiting and Location → China. Then search the CDE platform with your cancer's Chinese name in the 适应症 (indication) field and set 试验状态 (trial status) to recruiting. ChiCTR adds investigator-initiated studies. Cross-check any trial you find across registries using its registration number.
What is a CTR number?
Trials registered on the CDE platform receive a registration number beginning with "CTR" (for example CTR20263465). It is the trial's official identifier on China's national registry. Quote it in any correspondence with a trial team, and use it to distinguish the trial from similarly named studies.
Can I enroll in a trial directly through the registry?
No. Registries are public information platforms, not enrollment systems. They tell you a trial exists, who runs it, and which institutions participate. To be considered, you contact the trial team — CDE detail pages publish contact information for each participating institution, and ClinicalTrials.gov lists study contacts. Eligibility is confirmed only by the trial's investigators after screening.
Do the registries show whether foreign patients can join?
Generally no. Eligibility criteria are medical (cancer type, stage, prior treatments, organ function), and most Chinese oncology trials do not list nationality as a criterion. But the registries do not tell you whether a specific hospital can practically handle an international patient — language support, international billing, medical records in English. Only the trial site can confirm that. Our guide to joining clinical trials in China as a foreigner covers what to ask.
China runs one of the world’s largest clinical trial systems — as of October 2026, ClinicalTrials.gov alone listed over 55,000 studies with locations in China, and roughly 11,700 of them were actively recruiting. Many international patients first hear about Chinese trials from an AI answer, a news story about CAR-T therapy, or another patient’s post — and then hit the same wall: which registry lists these trials, and how do you actually search it?
This guide is a search manual for the three official registries. It only explains how to use the official platforms themselves — no services, no intermediaries, no “ask us to match you” pitch. The registry is also your scam filter: if a “trial” someone offers you cannot be found on at least one of these three registries, walk away.
If you are still deciding whether a Chinese trial makes sense for you at all — eligibility rules for foreigners, costs, your rights as a participant — start with our overview guide, Clinical Trials in China for Foreigners, and come back here for the search mechanics.
What “Registered” Means in China
Since 2018, China has required every drug trial approved to run in the country to be registered and publicly disclosed on a national platform run by the drug regulator. Registration covers trials sponsored by domestic companies that never intend to list results internationally — which is why the Chinese registries contain many trials you will not find on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Two things registration does not mean:
- Registered ≠ recruiting for everyone. The registry records the trial’s status, its eligibility criteria, and its participating institutions. Whether a given site has open slots, and how it handles non-Chinese patients, is decided at the site level.
- Registered ≠ safe by itself. Registration is a legality check, not a quality endorsement. It is the necessary filter — an unregistered “trial” is not a trial at all — but read the protocol’s eligibility criteria and confirm details with the trial team regardless.
The Three Registries at a Glance
| ClinicalTrials.gov | CDE platform (chinadrugtrials.org.cn) | ChiCTR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run by | US National Library of Medicine (NIH) | Center for Drug Evaluation, NMPA (China’s drug regulator) | Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, based at West China Hospital of Sichuan University |
| What it is | The international US registry | China’s mandatory national registry — every approved drug trial must be here | WHO-recognized academic registry (a WHO ICTRP Primary Registry) |
| Language | English | Chinese only | English and Chinese |
| Coverage | International trials, plus many China-led trials with international ambitions | The complete set of drug trials approved in China, including domestic-only ones | Investigator-initiated and academic studies; some overlap with both registries above |
| Registration mandatory? | No (voluntary for China-only trials) | Yes, for drug trials in China | No (voluntary) |
| Best for | Your first search in English | Completing the picture — especially for domestic oncology trials | Academic/investigator-initiated studies |
| Practical limitation | Misses domestic-only Chinese trials | Chinese interface; you’ll need translated search terms | Smaller search audience; fewer tools |
A realistic search covers all three. Most people start on ClinicalTrials.gov because it’s in English, then check the CDE platform to make sure nothing registered only in China is missing.
1. ClinicalTrials.gov: Search China From English
The US registry is the natural first stop — full English eligibility criteria, structured filters, and study pages that link to results.
- Go to clinicaltrials.gov and type your condition into the search box (plain English works: “lung cancer”, “multiple myeloma”).
- On the results page, open the filter sidebar and set Study status → Recruiting and Location → China. This direct link jumps you to recruiting studies with locations in China.
- Open each study and read three things: the Eligibility section (inclusion and exclusion criteria), the Locations tab (which hospitals in which cities), and the Contacts section (how to reach the study team).
- Note the study’s NCT number (for example NCT06790693) — you’ll use it for cross-checking below.
The gap to know about: registration on ClinicalTrials.gov is not mandatory for trials that run only inside China. Trials sponsored by Chinese companies for Chinese hospitals — which is most of the oncology volume — often appear here only if the sponsor expects international readers. That’s why the next registry matters.
2. The CDE Platform: China’s Complete Registry
The Drug Clinical Trial Registration and Information Platform — chinadrugtrials.org.cn, 药物临床试验登记与信息公示平台 — is operated by the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the National Medical Products Administration. Every drug trial approved to run in China must be registered and publicly disclosed here, including the domestic-only trials ClinicalTrials.gov misses. If a trial runs in China and isn’t here, treat that as a red flag.
The interface is Chinese-only. Search results are far more reliable when you query in Chinese — below are the field names and the disease terms translated.
Opening and searching
- Open chinadrugtrials.org.cn. The homepage search box works without an account, as does the 高级查询 (Advanced Query) button.
- For a precise search — say, recruiting trials for your cancer type at hospitals you can travel to — use 高级查询 (Advanced Query), which lets you combine fields. You do not need to register or log in to search or to read trial pages.
- Results are lists of trials with their registration numbers. Click a number to open the trial’s public detail page.
The advanced query fields
These are the fields the advanced query form exposes:
| Chinese field | English | What to enter |
|---|---|---|
| 适应症 | Indication | Your disease in Chinese — see the disease terms table below |
| 药物名称 | Drug name | A drug’s Chinese or generic name, if you’re tracking a specific compound |
| 申请人 | Sponsor (applicant) | The company running the trial |
| 主要研究者 | Lead investigator (PI) | The professor heading the trial |
| 临床参加机构 | Participating institutions | A hospital name in Chinese, e.g. 瑞金医院 (Ruijin Hospital) |
| 试验状态 | Trial status | Filter to actively recruiting trials — the recruiting label is 招募中 |
For a cancer search, the combination that works is 适应症 (indication) + 试验状态 (status = 招募中 recruiting), optionally narrowed by 临床参加机构 (participating institutions) to hospitals in a city you can reach.
Reading a trial detail page
Click any trial’s registration number and you get the public disclosure page. It contains, in Chinese:
- Registration number starting with CTR (for example, CTR20263465) — the trial’s official identifier. Quote this number in any correspondence.
- Sponsor (申请人) — the company responsible for the trial.
- Lead investigator (主要研究者) — name, title, and institution.
- Participating institutions (临床参加机构) with contact information — real detail pages list each site’s department, phone, email and postal address. This is the official channel to reach a trial team: for example, the public page for registration CTR20263465 (a CAR-T lymphoma trial) lists the lead investigator’s name, title, direct phone, email and postal address at the participating hospital.
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria (入选/排除标准) — the medical eligibility rules, in Chinese.
- Trial status — whether it is currently 招募中 (recruiting).
Use your browser’s translate feature to read the page — machine translation of medical criteria is imperfect, so treat the translation as orientation and have someone medically literate check the criteria before you draw conclusions.
Chinese search terms you’ll need
The single most useful thing to prepare is your diagnosis in Chinese. These are the standard Chinese medical terms for the cancers international patients most commonly search trials for:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Lung cancer | 肺癌 | fèi ái |
| Breast cancer | 乳腺癌 | rǔxiàn ái |
| Gastric (stomach) cancer | 胃癌 | wèi ái |
| Liver cancer | 肝癌 | gān ái |
| Colorectal cancer | 结直肠癌 | jiézhícháng ái |
| Esophageal cancer | 食管癌 | shíguǎn ái |
| Pancreatic cancer | 胰腺癌 | yíxiàn ái |
| Nasopharyngeal carcinoma | 鼻咽癌 | bíyān ái |
| Lymphoma | 淋巴瘤 | línbā liú |
| Leukemia | 白血病 | báixuèbìng |
| Multiple myeloma | 多发性骨髓瘤 | duōfāxìng gǔsuǐ liú |
| Ovarian cancer | 卵巢癌 | luǎncháo ái |
| Cervical cancer | 宫颈癌 | gōngjǐng ái |
| Prostate cancer | 前列腺癌 | qiánlièxiàn ái |
| Thyroid cancer | 甲状腺癌 | jiǎzhuàngxiàn ái |
If your diagnosis has a specific subtype or biomarker (for example, EGFR-mutated lung cancer, EGFR 突变), search the base cancer term first — subtype-specific trials are listed under the same indication, and you filter by reading each trial’s eligibility criteria.
3. ChiCTR: The WHO-Recognized Academic Registry
The Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), based at West China Hospital of Sichuan University, is a WHO ICTRP Primary Registry — the same recognition tier as ClinicalTrials.gov — with over 131,000 registered studies.
ChiCTR’s value for international patients is coverage: it registers investigator-initiated and academic studies — often physician-led research that a pharmaceutical company is not sponsoring — some of which appear on neither ClinicalTrials.gov nor the CDE platform.
How to use it:
- Go to chictr.org.cn and switch to English in the top bar.
- Use Trial Search and enter your condition in English (or Chinese — both work).
- Each record shows the registration number (ChiCTR-prefixed), status, sponsor, and contact details where provided.
ChiCTR records for drug trials are usually duplicated on the CDE platform (registration there is mandatory), so use ChiCTR mainly as a sweep for the academic studies the other two miss.
Reading Any Trial Listing: A Field Glossary
Whichever registry you search, listings reuse the same vocabulary. Quick reference:
| Term you’ll see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Recruiting / 招募中 | Actively enrolling participants |
| Eligibility / 入选标准 / 排除标准 | Inclusion criteria (must-haves) and exclusion criteria (disqualifiers) |
| Phase I / II / III | Trial phase: I = first-in-human safety and dosing; II = first evidence of effect; III = comparison against standard treatment |
| Sponsor / 申请人 | The company or institution responsible for the trial |
| PI (Principal Investigator) / 主要研究者 | The professor or doctor leading the trial at a site |
| Study sites / Locations / 临床参加机构 | The hospitals where the trial runs |
| NCT number | Registration ID on ClinicalTrials.gov |
| CTR number | Registration ID on China’s CDE platform |
| ChiCTR number | Registration ID on ChiCTR |
Cross-Checking Trials Between Registries
The same trial often appears in more than one registry, under different numbers:
- An international trial running sites in China typically has an NCT number on ClinicalTrials.gov and a CTR number on the CDE platform.
- Chinese trials occasionally appear on ChiCTR with a ChiCTR-prefixed number in addition to their CTR registration.
Cross-checking matters for three practical reasons:
- English protocol vs Chinese original. The ClinicalTrials.gov page often has a fuller English description of a trial whose CDE page is Chinese-only. Read the English, verify against the Chinese original — the CDE entry is the regulator-facing record of what is actually approved.
- Contact routes. Some trials publish richer contacts on one registry than the other. You may find the study-team email on ClinicalTrials.gov and the site-level phone numbers only on the CDE detail page.
- Status drift. A trial can be recruiting on one registry and lagging on another. When statuses disagree, treat the site’s own confirmation (by phone or email) as the truth.
The WHO ICTRP search portal aggregates all WHO-recognized registries worldwide — including ChiCTR and ClinicalTrials.gov — in one search box. It’s another way to sweep for a trial name across registries at once.
What the Registries Cannot Tell You
This is the honest boundary of what any registry search produces, and where most international patients over-extrapolate:
- Whether the site accepts international patients. Eligibility criteria are medical. Most Chinese oncology trials do not list nationality as a criterion — but the registry will not tell you whether a specific hospital has the practical apparatus to enroll a non-Chinese resident: language support for informed consent, international medical records handling, billing. Only the trial site can confirm this. Contact them directly using the contact information the registry itself publishes.
- Informed consent language. Chinese GCP regulations — carried forward in the 2026 revision (Announcement No. 50 of 2026, effective September 1, 2026) — require informed consent in language the participant understands. Whether a specific site routinely produces English consent documents is a site-level question to ask directly.
- Slot availability. A trial listed as recruiting may have filled its quota at the site nearest you, while other sites still enroll. Ask the site.
- Your eligibility. You can — and should — pre-read the inclusion and exclusion criteria, but eligibility is confirmed only by the trial’s investigators after screening your medical records and on-site tests. Self-excluding (“stage too advanced, they won’t take me”) or self-selecting are both common mistakes; let the screening decide.
What this means in practice: the registry search produces a shortlist with official contact points — trial numbers, sites, published phone numbers and emails. Reaching out to those official contacts is the legitimate path. You do not need any intermediary to do it for you, and anyone who claims the registry entry itself is an invitation to enroll is overstating it.
Common Search Mistakes
- Searching only ClinicalTrials.gov. You’ll see the internationally visible slice of Chinese trials and miss the domestic-only majority — which is where many of the headline CAR-T and oncology trials live. Always follow up on the CDE platform.
- Searching the CDE platform with English or translated-back disease names. The platform’s search expects Chinese terms. Searching “lung cancer” or even 肺的癌 returns noise; 肺癌 returns the trials.
- Forgetting the status filter. Thousands of completed trials remain listed. Set 试验状态 to recruiting (招募中) before reading anything else.
- Assuming a listed site means that site enrols everyone. Trial sites differ in capacity and international-patient experience even within the same trial. The registry lists the site; the site decides who it can practically enroll.
- Stopping at the listing. The detail page’s contact information is the whole point of the registry for a patient. A shortlist without outreach is just reading.
- Trusting a “trial” that exists only in a message thread. If the CTR/NCT/ChiCTR number someone gives you doesn’t resolve to a matching trial on the official registry — or no number is offered at all — that is the scam pattern. See our overview guide’s red flags section.
Related Guides
- Clinical Trials in China for Foreigners — Eligibility for foreigners, rights under Chinese GCP, costs, red flags, and the step-by-step enrollment path
- Medical Trip to China: Complete Planning Guide — Hospitals, visas, budgeting
- Healthcare Costs for Foreigners in China — What treatment actually costs
- Medical Tourism in China: Dental, Cosmetic & Health Checks — The lower-cost end of medical travel
Medical Disclaimer
This content is for general health education only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We do not provide medical services, do not arrange or broker clinical trial enrollment, and do not endorse specific hospitals, trials, or outcomes. Registry listings and search instructions above describe publicly available official platforms; trial eligibility is determined solely by trial investigators. Treatment decisions should be made in consultation with qualified healthcare professionals.
Sources
Verified against the sources below on 15 November 2026 (UTC).
- CDE, NMPA — Drug Clinical Trial Registration and Information Platform (China’s mandatory trial registry; homepage search and advanced query fields verified by direct use of the platform, October 2026): chinadrugtrials.org.cn
- Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) — WHO ICTRP Primary Registry, based at West China Hospital of Sichuan University: chictr.org.cn and the WHO primary registries list
- WHO — International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) search portal: who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform
- ClinicalTrials.gov — recruiting studies with locations in China (count basis: 55,288 China-location studies / 11,754 recruiting via the ClinicalTrials.gov API v2, 12 October 2026)
- NMPA, NHC, National Administration of TCM, National Disease Control Administration — Good Clinical Practice 2026 revision, Announcement No. 50 of 2026 (effective 1 September 2026; informed consent language requirement carried forward from the 2020 GCP): nmpa.gov.cn
- CDE platform public detail page for registration CTR20263465 (field-level verification of CTR numbering, PI contact details, and inclusion/exclusion criteria display, October 2026)
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© 2026 China Neighbor ·Оригинал статьи: · Последняя проверка:Nov 15, 2026
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