MyBlack^® Health

Taking Action to Diversify Clinical Cancer Research

Source: NCI Cancer Bulletin

Many decry the fact that only 3 to 5 percent of adults with cancer in the United States join clinical trials, but a deeper challenge emerges when you put faces to these numbers. Close to 90 percent of those who do enroll in NCI-sponsored studies are white (with Hispanics/Latinos accounting for only 5.6 percent of that amount). “Minority, rural, elderly, and other underserved patient populations bear a heavy burden of cancer disease but remain underrepresented in clinical trials,” says Dr. Jean Ford, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Not only does this pile one disparity atop another by denying them the benefits of clinical trials as a treatment option, but it potentially compromises the ability to generalize trial results to those groups.” (See the sidebar on rural populations.) NCI is using several approaches to increase the enrollment of minority and underserved patients in clinical trials. In 2001, the Institute established the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD), in part, to address the problems minorities face in gaining access to cutting-edge cancer care, including the care provided in clinical trials.

Read Article