Conference Series Takes Shape

ENACCT and Seattle-based CCPH (Community-Campus Partnerships for Health) have been awarded a Federal grant to convene an invitational conference series, Communities as Partners in Cancer Clinical Trials: Changing Research, Practice and Policy , which will explore the potential of integrating Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) principles into therapeutic cancer clinical research.

The ENACCT-CCPH conference series convenes at a critical time, as concern increases in the clinical research community regarding the low accrual rate of minorities and other underserved populations in therapeutic cancer clinical trials. Low rates of trial participation have a profound impact on both the quality of research and the pace at which new scientific discoveries are made. Equally important is the matter of social justice -- access to cancer clinical trials is a key quality measure for delivery of health care services and is one of the established standards for the delivery of quality comprehensive cancer care.

Despite numerous expert recommendations regarding the need for new community-based approaches to clinical trial outreach and accrual, this subject has been largely absent from national policy discussions on reforming the clinical trial enterprise. The ENACCT-CCPH conference series is the first to explore the use of CBPR -- which holds the promise of improving research quality, intervention and outcomes, and enhancing research recruitment efforts -- in cancer clinical trials.

A major conference-related project is a background paper on cancer clinical trials and CBPR, entitled Involving Communities as Partners in Cancer Clinical Trials, co-authored by Margo Michaels and Sarena Seifer, CCPH Executive Director. The paper serves as a primer on CBPR and the U.S. cancer clinical trial enterprise, and offers an innovative model for integrating CBPR principles into each phase of clinical trial design and implementation. The paper also includes formal commentaries from NCI staff, patient advocates, oncologists, clinical trial researchers, minority health experts and others. The commentaries demonstrate that influential stakeholders see promise in many aspects of the new model, and believe that new ideas are needed to address the chronically low rates of participation among underserved groups in cancer clinical research.

The background paper will be required reading for participants at the first conference in September. According to Margo Michaels, “The background paper was written to stimulate discussion among the participants and get them thinking in creative ways about greater possibilities for community inclusion in cancer clinical trials. If our ultimate goal is meaningful community engagement in cancer clinical research, we have to think beyond traditional approaches.” The goal of the first working conference, which will take place September 5 -7, 2007 in College Park, Maryland, is to lay the foundation for a draft strategic plan to improve the conduct of cancer clinical research and the translation of research findings into practice and policy.

The draft plan will be available for public comment in March 2008. For more information, contact Stacy Collins, project coordinator, at stacy.collins@enacct.org