Lack of diversity is a long-standing issue in clinical trials. This lack of diversity is often related to strict eligibility criteria, including other medications taken by the person, washout periods, performance status, laboratory tests, prior therapies, the status of brain metastases, and others. Another common exclusion criterion is the presence of certain comorbidities (other conditions a patient has) such as diabetes or high blood pressure. These are more common in Black patients than in other groups. As a result, Black patients may be unintentionally and disproportionately excluded from and underrepresented in cancer clinical trials. Expanding eligibility criteria is essential to increase diversity in cancer clinical trials.
Read below for general information about the lack of diversity in current clinical trials, and steps towards solutions.
General information
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Cancer clinical trials exclude too many patients: That’s changing
Steps Toward Solutions
- ASCO ASCO and Friends of Cancer Research Recommend Expanding Patient Access to Cancer Clinical Trials by Further Broadening Eligibility Criteria
- Breastcancer.org Special Report: Increasing Racial Diversity in Breast Cancer Clinical Trials
- Breast Cancer Vision (Pfizer): Reducing Healthcare Inequities for Black Women: Tigerlily Foundation Partnership
- Cancer Support Community: Black or African American Peer Clinical Trials Support Program
- For the Breast of Us Survey: Representation in Breast Cancer Clinical Trials
- Healio Mount Sinai team awarded a grant to address racial disparities in cancer trial participation
- Tigerlily Foundation Young Women’s MBC Disparities Alliance
- TOUCH Press Release TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance is Awarded Genentech™’s Health Equity Innovation Grant
- When We Tri(al) (Video): We Can’t Afford Not To