Abstract
Purpose
A number of factors have been identified as being associated with the documented low accrual rate of minorities into cancer-related clinical trials in the USA. An important issue is the fundamental interest, or lack thereof, of these specific patient populations in actually considering study participation.
Methods
To examine this issue, aggregate data were analyzed from a proprietary Internet-based decision support program (NexProfiler Treatment Option Tools for Cancer, NexCura®, Seattle, WA, USA) embedded into approximately 100 cancer-associated Web sites where responding patients (or their families) were asked, but not required, to identify their race/ethnicity (African-American, Asian-American, Caucasian and Hispanic) and to also respond to the question, “Are you interested in learning about clinical trials?”.
Results
Of the >60,000 patients who both self-identified their race/ethnicity and responded to the question regarding their desire to learn about clinical trials, approximately 10% were from the minority (non-Caucasian) groups. Of note, in all four malignancies analyzed (breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate) and in both patients ≤60 and >60 years of age, each of the three non-Caucasian populations expressed an interest in learning about such studies that was equal to, if not greater than, that observed in the Caucasian respondents.
Conclusion
Assuming these provocative results regarding self-declared desire to learn about clinical trials can be confirmed by others with similar Internet-associated databases, this analysis suggests Web-based recruitment strategies may be an effective method to communicate with minority populations in the US (and, perhaps, elsewhere) with a specific interest in considering participation in cancer clinical trials.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Advani AS, Atkeson B, Brown CL, Peterson BL, Fish L, Johnson JL, Gockerman JP, Gautier M (2003) Barriers to the participation of African-American patients in clinical trials. Cancer 97:1499–1506
Avis NE, Smith KW, Link CL, Hortobagyi GN, Rivera E (2006) Factors associated with participation in breast treatment clinical trials. J Clin Oncol 24:1860–1867
Calvo E, Baselga J (2006) Ethnic differences in response to epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. J Clin Oncol 24:2158–2163
Cottin V, Arpin D, Lasset C, Cordier JF, Brune J, Chauvin F, Trillet-Lenoir V (1999) Small-cell lung cancer: patients included in clinical trials are not representative of the patient population as a whole. Ann Oncol 10:809–815
Elting LS, Cooksley C, Bekele BN, Frumovitz M, Avritscher EB, Sun C, Bodurka DC (2006) Generalizability of cancer clinical trial results. Cancer 106:2452–2458
Hershman D, Weinberg M, Rosner Z, Alexis K, Tiersten A, Grann VR, Troxel A, Neugut AI (2003) Ethnic neutropenia and treatment delay in African American women undergoing chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 95:1545–1548
Lai GY, Gary TL, Tilburt J, Bolen S, Baffi C, Wilson RF, Howerton MW, Gibbons MC, Tanpitukpongse TP, Powe NR, Bass EB, Ford JG (2006) Effectiveness of strategies to recruit underrepresented populations into cancer clinical trials. Clin Trials 3:133–141
Lara PN Jr, Higdon R, Lim N, Kwan K, Tanaka M, Lau DH, Wun T, Welborn J, Meyers FJ, Christensen S, O’Donnell R, Richman C, Scudder SA, Tuscano J, Gandara DR, Lam KS (2001) Prospective evaluation of cancer clinical trial accrual patterns: identifying potential barriers to enrollment. J Clin Oncol 19:1728–1733
Lara Jr PN, Paterniti DA, Chiechi C, Turrell C, Morain C, Horan N, Montell L, Gonzalez J, Davis S, Umutyan A, Martel CL, Gandara DR, Wun T, Beckett LA, Chen MS Jr (2005) Evaluation of factors affecting awareness of and willingness to participate in cancer clinical trials. J Clin Oncol 23:9282–9289
McCaskill-Stevens W, Pinto H, Marcus AC, Comis R, Morgan R, Plomer K, Schoentgen S (1999) Recruiting minority cancer patients into cancer clinical trials: a pilot project involving the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and the National Medical Association. J Clin Oncol 17:1029–1039
Metzger ML, Hudson MM, Somes GW, Shorr RI, Li CS, Krasin MJ, Shelso J, Pui CH, Howard SC (2006) White race as a risk factor for hypothyroidism after treatment for pediatric Hodgkin’s lymphoma. J Clin Oncol 24:1516–1521
Mills EJ, Seely D, Rachlis B, Griffith L, Wu P, Wilson K, Ellis P, Wright JR (2006) Barriers to participation in clinical trials of cancer: a meta-analysis and systemic review of patient-reported factors. Lancet Oncol 7:141–148
Moreno-John G, Gachie A, Fleming CM, Napoles-Springer A, Mutran E, Manson SM, Perez-Stable EJ (2004) Ethnic minority older adults participating in clinical research: developing trust. J Aging Health 16(suppl 5):93s–123s
Murphy VH, Krumholz HM, Gross CP (2004) Participation in cancer clinical trials: race-, sex-, and age-based disparities. JAMA 291:2720–2726
Roy P, Hudson GV, Hudson BV, Esteve J, Swerdlow AJ (2000) Long-term survival in Hodgkin’s disease patients: a comparison of relative survival in patients in trials and those recorded in population-based cancer registries. Eur J Cancer 36:384–389
Sateren WB, Trimble EL, Abrams J, Brawley O, Breen N, Ford L, McCabe M, Kaplan R, Smith M, Ungerleider R, Christian MC (2002) How sociodemographics, presence of oncology specialists, and hospital programs affect accrual to cancer treatment trials. J Clin Oncol 20:2109–2117
Simon MS, Brown DR, Du W, LoRusso P, Kellogg CM (1999) Accrual to breast cancer clinical trials at a university-affiliated hospital in metropolitan Detroit. Am J Clin Oncol 22:42–46
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Markman, M., Petersen, J. & Montgomery, R. An examination of the influence of patient race and ethnicity on expressed interest in learning about cancer clinical trials. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 134, 115–118 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-007-0263-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-007-0263-4