The Impact of National Press Coverage on Early Phase Clinical Trial Recruitment and Enrollment.

Abstract

Abstract The American Society of Clinical Oncologists reports that only 5% of cancer patients ultimately enroll in a clinical trial. According to the National Cancer Institute, one key barrier to participation is a lack of knowledge about clinical trials, both on behalf of oncologists and the patients themselves. Unfortunately, many investigator-initiated and academic clinical trials simply do not have budgets that permit implementation of large-scale recruitment efforts. Recent experience by our group demonstrates that press coverage by national media is a particularly effective tool for generating public interest in clinical research, as well as increasing trial enrollment.In the third quarter of 2008, our academic translational research group was featured on a national news program. In the week following the broadcast, our group's website, which had been listed in the broadcast and accompanying web story, received an unprecedented number of hits. Not only did the broadcast generate interest in our group's research; more specifically, it translated to substantial increases in potential clinical trial candidates, and subsequently, increased trial enrollment. In the month following the broadcast, our group received 125 new clinical trial inquiries as a result of the feature. That number represented a seven-fold increase in new inquiries during the same period in 2007. Of those 125 contacts, more than half of patients were potentially eligible for one of our clinical trials based on an initial screening. From November 2008 to the present, nearly one-third of all clinical trial enrollments can be attributed to the news story. Enrollment to the vaccine trial specifically described in the news feature increased four fold in comparison to the same 6-month period in 2008-2009, with half of all new enrollments attributable to the news feature. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 6078.