How patient-clinician education can strengthen partnerships and promote tangible actions to improve clinical trial diversity in breast and lung cancer trials.

Abstract

6510 Background: Some of the greatest disparities in cancer care are related to clinical trial access for our patients. To address the racial/ethnic disparities in breast and lung cancer clinical trials, a tethered educational initiative was designed to empower patients, assess current clinician perceptions/practices, and improve awareness of real-world perspectives of clinical trials. Methods: Two, one-hour online, interactive, video-based programs were designed for patients, caregivers, and providers. This patient/caregiver program was hosted on CancerCoachLive and MedLive in November, 2022, while the provider program was hosted on ClinicalSeriesLive in December, 2022 and will remain on-demand until December 2023. This initiative was conducted in collaboration with TOUCH, the Black Breast Cancer Alliance, BlackDoctors.org, Moffitt Cancer Center, CancerCare, and the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. Herein, we report on an analysis from patients and providers regarding clinical trial diversity, behavioral impact, and qualitative insights. Results: As of data cut-off (02/10/23), 1,425 participants have engaged across both educational programs. Of participating patients, 46% were non-White (non-Hispanic), 36% were in remission, 36% were not on active treatment, and 29% were newly diagnosed. Following the program 81% were motivated to take one or more actions over the next two months: the most common actions being to research clinical trials (38%) or discuss clinical trials with a clinician (19%). Post-activity, 79% were confident to very confident discussing clinical trials with a clinician. Critical data related to clinician preferences was assessed and demonstrated a 23% increase in confidence from pre- to post-activity in improving diversity in clinical trial participation with preferences observed in both breast and lung cancers to offer clinical trials for newly diagnosed and second recurrence settings. Of those who are being offered clinical trials in the community setting, there was a higher likelihood for patients to be offered a clinical trial if their subtype was HER2+ breast cancer subtype or NSCLC with an actionable mutation. Data collection continues as this initiative is ongoing. Qualitative data including clinician write-in examples of behavioral impact and patient perspectives from the interviews will be shared. Conclusions: The outcomes discussed herein reveal a willingness from patients/caregivers to engage in clinical trial discussions and participate in clinical trials, if eligible. These educational programs positively impacted clinician motivation to address barriers to enrollment and clinical trial eligibility with their patients. Real-world accounts of patient experiences provide different perspectives that can help improve approaches to improve clinical trial diversity.