Five articles that raise awareness about persistent clinical trial disparities

Clinical trials contribute to the overall understanding of cancer biology and help to advance treatment options and improve patient outcomes.

However, gaps among treatment populations and patient understanding within various oncology clinical trials still exist.

HemOnc Today presents recent research on several disparities within clinical trials and potential recommendations to assist in improving trial recruitment and eliminating inequalities.

Enrollment of adolescents in oncology trials remains significantly lower than that of children. Therefore, the FDA has urged the research community to enroll more adolescents with cancer in clinical trials designed to evaluate investigational oncology treatments in adults. Read more.
The use of metaphors for explaining randomization could ease the difficulty in recruiting patients to participate in randomized clinical trials, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Read more.
Clinical trials routinely use strict enrollment criteria that exclude patients who are most likely to benefit from the treatment under investigation, according to study results. HemOnc Today spoke with Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, MS, about these results, their potential implications and how members of the clinical community can help drive change in this area. Read more.
Patients with breast cancer aged older than 65 years and 70 years were greatly underrepresented in various types of clinical trials and their representation did not increase over time, according to results of a retrospective study. Read more.
In this point/counter, Jennifer Gray, ACNP-BC, MSN, and Supriya G. Mohile, MD, MS, discuss whether it is feasible to require enrollment of elderly patients in clinical trials. Read more.