A new survey found that although a majority of Black men with prostate cancer were willing to discuss participation in clinical trials, they were significantly less willing to enroll in them than their White counterparts.1
“Black men were more likely than White men to believe that members of their racial group should be suspicious of the health care system, and this suspicion was associated with lower willingness to discuss clinical trials,” researchers wrote.
The cross-sectional study included survey information from 205 participants from Partnering Around Cancer Clinical Trial collected from 2016 to 2019 at 2 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers.
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The primary outcome was response to the question: “If you were offered a cancer clinical trial, would you be willing to hear more information about it?”
In response, 88.3% of respondents said they would be willing to participate. However, 82% of White men indicated willingness compared with 64% of Black men (P =.01). Black respondents were significantly more likely to be younger, less educated, have lower income, a greater perceived economic burden, lower health literacy, and greater group-based medical suspicion.
“This finding is consistent with work highlighting medical suspicion as a barrier to minority accrual in clinical trials,” the researchers wrote. “One possibility is that clinicians are less likely to discuss trials with Black patients they perceive as more suspicious. Importantly, most Black individuals in this sample reported being willing to discuss trials, suggesting that clinicians may find higher acceptance than they expect.”
Reference
Senft N, Hamel LM, Manning MA, et al. Willingness to discuss clinical trials among black vs white men with prostate cancer. JAMA Oncol. Published online September 17, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.3697
