How to Increase Participation in Potentially Life-Saving Cancer Clinical Trials

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Only 5% percent of Latinos participate in federal clinical trials, far less than their 19.5% makeup of the US population. This gives researchers fewer chances to find new cancer treatments for this population, which can benefit all people.

What can a health agency do to get more people into clinical trials?

A new guide, Clinical Trials Outreach: Program Replication Manual, developed by researchers at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at UT Health San Antonio, was created to help health agencies reach into communities and increase participation in cancer clinical trials to better reflect the US population.

With the guide, a health agency can:

• Learn about cancer clinical trials;
• Learn about donation of biospecimens (human materials such as skin, hair, and bodily fluids);
• Learn the need for focused outreach to increase trial accrual and biospecimen donation;
• Start outreach activities to increase accrual and donations;
• Adapt educational slides, materials and evaluations to local needs; and
• Increase the number of local people who participate in local trials and donate biospecimens.

“Most of today’s best cancer treatments are based on what we learned from past clinical trials,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the IHPR and the new manual. “The more people join clinical trials, the faster we can find better cancer treatments and prevention options and increase survival rates.”

The IHPR developed an educational outreach program to boost participation in clinical trials. The program: developed an English-and-Spanish-language educational module to teach the community about clinical trials, their purpose, and benefits; trained community health educators to deliver the module; built a community resource directory; and recruited organizations for support.

The new manual makes it possible for other health agencies to adapt the program and its module and other resources to fit any community.

“We hope other organizations can make additional progress in helping more people join potentially life-saving cancer clinical trials,” Ramirez said.