Clinical trials play a key role in advancing cancer treatment, especially for Black Americans who face higher death rates and experience inequalities in access to health care. We must understand the unique barriers Black patients in the U.S. encounter concerning availability and enrollment in clinical trials.
A survey study in partnership with the Association of Community Care Centers (ACCC), Oncology Research Institute (ACORI), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), aimed to identify these barriers and explore strategies to overcome these obstacles.
Barriers to enrolling Black Americans in clinical trials
The Barriers to Clinical Trial Implementation Among Community Care Centers study revealed the key factors that influence patient enrollment in clinical trials as well as recommendations for improving practices to help boost clinical trial enrollment.
This study’s recommendations align with FDA guidance to improve clinical trial enrollment among minority groups. The study also revealed the additional barriers to clinical research trial enrollments:
Wavering patient participation
The majority of enrollments in clinical trials come directly from patient requests for inclusion. However, despite being proactive, patients change their minds about participation for a variety of reasons. These can include lack of communication with their doctor, fear of negative side effects, concerns based on hearsay or previous experience, whether the trials are culturally appropriate for Black people and financial or logistical issues.
Because of this, it’s important to capitalize on patients’ proactive behavior by supporting patient-driven programs like the Clinical Trials Matching Service, which from 2007 to 2010 resulted in an 11 percent improvement in clinical trial enrollments.
Staffing and accessibility concerns at community center sites
For community care sites not engaged in clinical trial research – six site contacts out of the 58 that responded to the survey – limited staffing was the most common reason for
