Internet used as a new tool for Recruitment into Clinical Trials in Cancer Treatment
Recent data, compiled by the National Cancer Institute, shows that only a mere 3% of adults diagnosed with cancer take part in clinical trials. Even more startling is of that percentage, only 4.21% African Americans and 4.3% Hispanics take part in such trials, compared to the 83.9% Caucasians/White participation. Clinical Trials are arguably our greatest hope for finding a cure for cancer, so why don’t more adults participate in these trials. These clinical trials play a crucial role in gathering significant data by racial and ethnical background. Researchers are asking not only asking why, but rather how they can improve the participation in clinical trials. The answer is the Internet.
The Internet is a giant multimedia tool for everything from advertisement to educational research. So it is no surprise that researchers are using it as a recruitment tool for clinical trials. Researchers are also hoping to not only increase the total number of clinical trial participants, but also increase the number of under-represented minority participants. Advertisements targeting desired groups for clinical trials, are currently being designed to go on the internet in hope of attracting participants.
However, there are some set backs to using the internet to recruit minority participants in clinical trial. Some say that, basing clinical trials on race and ethnicity has no scientific or anthropological baring( U.S. Office of Management and Budget). On the other hand, according to the standards for Clinical Research established by the National Institute of Health(NIH) the collection information requires the participation of all races and ethnicities, including minorities. Another concern is that minorities, who according to a recent census, may not have access to the internet due to social-economic limitations. This may limit their potential participation in clinical trials.
Despite the social arguments, I believe that everyone’s participation in clinical trials is necessary in order to find a cure for cancer. This include minority and non-minority participation. It is well known that individuals participating in clinical trials generally receive higher quality treatment, than those who don’t participate. This, in itself, should be enough to persuade anyone with cancer, to participate in a clinical trial.
Citations:
Considerations on the Use of the Internet as a Tool for Minority Recruitment into Clinical Trials, Dr. Harold Freeman, MD, The Cancer Journal, Vol. 12, No. 6, November/ December 2006
Posted By: JMcNeill
Response to Comments
To address the concern of why so many cancer patients don’t take part in clinical trials, first let me explain some of the common reasons that patients use to explain their absence in such trials. As many of us know, most adults have very busy lives, which is the main deterrent for most adults. Many adults also don’t know that clinical trials exist for cancer patients. This is due partly because of lack of advertisement. Another deterrent is discouragement from friends and families, even the patients General Practitioner (GP). Most families tend to freak out, for lack of a better phrase, when they find out that a loved one has cancer. The families naturally want to spend as much time with their perceived dying love one, so they convince them to not take part in clinical trials. In rare cases, even the cancer patient’s GP will persuade the patient that clinical trials are risky and may not be the best coarse of action. Although, clinical trials generally provide the top quality care to the patient, they are often risky and may not work.
Secondly, race and ethnicity may prove to have some scientific relevance in the study of cancer. As many of us already know, some races or ethnic groups are more susceptible to many diseases, including cancer. Researchers would like to increase the number of minorities that take place in clinical trials, so that they might learn more about racial or ethnical influences on the occurrence of cancer. They are currently looking to use the Internet, as well as other forms of advertising, to increase the overall and minority participation in clinical trials. However, they were concerned about the possible flaws in this plan, and that was what the article in which I based this blog was written about.
Overall, thank you for all your comments. They helped me narrow my research for more information about clinical trials and why they fail. As I am interested in cancer and cancer research, I will continue to search for new information on this topic, and if I find any I will post it. Thanks, everyone for taking the time to read and comment on my blog.
JMcNeill
posted by PWH @ 7:38 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
This post was well written at the beginning. It efficiently starts by grabbing the reader with a surprising statistic, that “only a mere 3% of adults diagnosed with cancer take part in clinical trials.” The post then goes on to explain how the internet is a great potential for researchers to recruit patients for clinical trials, and that minority participation may be improved if this method of recruitment is pursued. However, near the end of the post, the subject matter drifts into whether accurate minority participation is even statistically relevant. Some more information and research on why patients do not usually participate in clinical trials might have been more relevant to stay with the strong topic that the post started with. A stronger connection between the start of the post and the end of it would have helped the post to be stronger overall, even though the ending was still well written.
Faracij6
Although there were a few small writing errors in this blog, I thought it was written well enough and informative on the need for more Clinical Trial participants and the method of getting these participants. I think that the internet is a good way to get the message out there, but it is true that the target participants, minorities, that are needed either do not have access to the internet or know how to search for the recruitment message. The best way to have everyone see the message is by using all types of advertisement.
Lily Huynh
I have found that even though science is suppose to be unbiased or not based on race, gender, or ethnicity; it is hard for clinical science to not consider include these in their studies. It seems that they are in need of a more diverse demographic especially when it comes to testing and I can understand the importance of that. The internet is a good way to reach many people and target new people that might not know clinical trials exist out there. I wonder what other forms of media they are also using to reach to the masses especially minorities.
Another factor for minorities could also be time following the socioeconomic limitation. They don't have time to participate in clinical trials.
---happyfeet
I was very suprised to hear that 83.9% of the participants in clinical trials for cancer treatment are "white" (most likely of European descent). I believe that participation in such studies will need to become more inclusive if we wish to find effective treatments for this complex disease. Given today's technological era, the internet may help researchers find a more diverse crowd from which to draw data. Those with social-economic limitations can usually use the internet for free at their local libraries.
-koeniga6
At first I thought you meant that people weren't participating in clinical trials because they didn't want to/were afraid to. So I didn't see why the internet would make a difference. But then I thought you meant getting the message out. Studies have shown that there aren't any major chemical/DNA differences between races but I see how they would want to include everyone just incase and to make sure the study had more variety.
-WildThing
I think that use of the internet in order to perpetuate/increase the involvement of cancer patients in clinical studies is definitely a powerfully useful tool. I however believe that in order to increase people's involvement in these trials, it is important to understand that many people, especially those dealing with the harshness of cancer, have many more pressing issues to deal with on a daily basis, and so these clinical trials should be made more readily available in addition to the increase in their advertisement.
keshish06
I really thought this was very interesting to know. There were some errors, but overall it was good. I enjoyed reading it, and I thought that the internet is a good way to put the word out there. The internet is internationally used, and it's all over the world. This can help spread the word a lot. It's good to put in some statistics (the percents).
leesh6
Alike to many of the other comments that were posted I to am very surprised that so many of the participants were of white ethnicity. However, I do not know if I necessarily agree with why there are not more races participating in the clinical trials. Although I can not come up with a reason to why they would not want to participate I have to say that in order to find a cure we need to have participants of all ethnicities.
It is nice to see that with the massive amount of internet users out there that they are finally using it to good use. Cancer has always and will always be a huge concern to everyone until hopefully one day when a cure is found. Until then the more clinical trials they perform the closer researchers will come to perfecting a possible cure for this horrific experience. I whole heartedly believe that with the internet we may be able to find this cure faster and more effectively.
It makes sense that the majority of clinical trial participants are white, as the majority of people with cancers are white. Some under-represented groups may have higher rates of disease, however, their absolute number of people with disease may be small, simply because the population is younger (therefore less likely to get cancer), or the total group size is smaller (therefore absolute number of people with cancer is smaller). That said, minorities are still underrepresented in clinical trials, and special efforts to reduce barriers to participation should be built into the protocols.
Good blog effort. Please keep it up.
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