Cancer Cooperative Group Newsletter

Minority participation in cancer clinical trials remains a major challenge and an ongoing focus for all stakeholders. Accrual of underserved populations is often quite low, with far-reaching research and treatment implications.

For example, African Americans represent 13% of the US population, and breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among African-American women (34.1%). However, only 7% of all patients enrolled in a highly positive breast cancer study investigating the addition of Herceptin® to conventional adjuvant chemotherapy were African American. Statistics for other trials are similar.

In order to increase minority participation in trials, clinical researchers require a better understanding of their patients' eligibility status as well as their attitudes and understanding of cancer research. The Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups is working to narrow this accrual gap with a new initiative recently funded by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

While the project focus is breast cancer, the results can provide insights on minority patient attitudes overall. The study is designed to help researchers at point-of-care learn more about the numbers of minority women who they screen for possible participation in clinical trials and the reasons why these patients are either ineligible or choose not to participate in a trial.

TrialCheck®, the Coalition's searchable database of cancer clinical trials, will be utilized, along with the tracking module Enrollment Tracker®, to follow screening, eligibility, and enrollment/ nonenrollment patterns among breast cancer patients served by participating sites that serve minority populations. With these tools, researchers will be able to pinpoint precise barriers to minority-based protocol enrollment among their patients. These findings will not only inform the sites, but the collective data will be published in a full report to assist scientific leaders nationwide as they consider trial designs and their inclusivity.