Strategies aim to reduce barriers to care, increase trial diversity
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World Cancer Day is observed annually on Feb. 4.
The theme of this year’s observance once again is “Close the Care Gap.”
This is the second year of a 3-year campaign designed to increase awareness about inequities in cancer care.
The effort will highlight barriers related to socioeconomic factors, stigma and discrimination that prevent many people around the world from accessing potentially life-saving preventive services, screening, treatment and care.
In conjunction with World Cancer Day, Healio presents the following 10 updates that offer insights into inequities in cancer care and potential strategies that could be implemented to address them.
1. ASCO and the Association of Community Cancer Centers have jointly developed recommendations for improving equity, diversity and inclusion in cancer clinical trials. Read more.
2. As telemedicine use increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, Black patients with cancer had lower usage levels than white patients. Read more.
3. The 2022 Cancer Disparities Progress Report issued by American Association for Cancer Research highlighted advances made in closing substantial gaps in care while underscoring the need for further progress. Read more.
4. A presentation at last year’s National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference highlighted how cancer centers, advocacy groups and other organizations have ramped up efforts to reduce disparities across the cancer care continuum. Read more.
5. A community-based oncology consortium effectively gathered nearly 2,000 unique genomic data sets from Black patients with cancer residing in Black Belt states. The data sets could contribute to better understanding of cancer health disparities in this patient population and democratize precision medicine. Read more.
6. Breast cancer death rates in the United States declined sharply over the past 30 years but racial disparities persist, according to a report from American Cancer Society. Read more.
7. Emerging evidence has shown chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies are highly effective regardless of a patient’s race or ethnicity. Despite this encouraging finding, access to the treatment modality — both in the real-world and research settings — remains limited for historically underrepresented populations. Read more.
8. Black women in the U.S. appeared less likely than white women to receive guideline-concordant treatment for ovarian cancer, according to a study published in Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Read more.
9. Up to one-quarter of those seeking clinical trial enrollment for novel front-line therapies to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are excluded based on organ function laboratory values. Five lab-based criteria were used to disqualify patients from participating in front-line clinical trials, the acceptable ranges of which often prohibited Black and Hispanic patients from enrollment. Read more.
10. Individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ continue to face barriers when trying to access high-quality and inclusive cancer care, according to panelists at the annual National Comprehensive Cancer Network Patient Advocacy Summit. Discussion explored two topics directly related to delivery of cancer care — the barriers that make it difficult to identify and address care needs of patients who are LGBTQ+, and policy solutions to advance equitable care for this population. Read more.
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