Clinical trial awareness in oncology patients of diverse ethnic background: A single-institution analysis.

Abstract

e19217 Background: Clinical trials offer several advantages to the patients including access to innovative treatments with improved survival rates, closer monitoring and follow-up with removal of health disparity; and aim to advance the science of medicine. Yet, worldwide enrollment rates in cancer clinical trials have been only about 5 percent, despite the fact that a significantly higher percentage of Americans have a desire to participate in clinical trials [1, 2]. We conducted a single institution study to gain knowledge about clinical trial awareness in our cancer patient population as well as to identify the barriers within provider-consumer communication that prevent enrollment. Methods: A 10-question survey was distributed by medical assistants and surveys (n=222) were collected at the end of each clinic visit. Responders included racial/ethnic minorities and underserved patients, representative of the ethnic diversity in the Staten Island Borough of New York City. Demographic data including age, gender, zip code, race and ethnicity were recorded. Additionally, Charlson comorbidity index and tumor stage was also recorded. Results: 159/222 patients (71.62%) completed the survey. Of these patients, 47 (29.55%) answered every question on the survey, while 112/159 patients (70.44%) answered only few of the questions. The completed surveys are linked by zip code to the different boroughs of Staten Island, which allows us to identify hubs with lack of clinical trial awareness knowledge. Conclusions: Despite the several advantages for patients and medical field, enrollment rates in clinical trials remain very low. Our study results help in gaining knowledge about clinical trial awareness among oncology patients, correlated to comorbidity and tumor stage. In addition, demographic hubs with lack of knowledge are identified as targets for community outreach and education. A multilevel approach will be developed to address identified barriers that exist for patients, and will be implemented at community level, to reduce ethnic bias in trial enrollment and increase trial participation among an ethnically diverse population.