ENACCT, Education Network to Advance Cancer Clinical Trials

May 2008

Communities as Partners workgroups develop draft recommendations and convene second invitational meeting

Following their first invitational meeting in September 2007, participants in the Communities as Partners project organized into three workgroups, reflecting the design and implementation of Phase III Clinical Trials, with a strong emphasis on the National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group Program:

Trial Design and Implementation Process at the National Level;
Implementation Process at the Local Level; and
Interpretation and Dissemination at the National and Local Levels

These workgroups were charged with developing specific recommendations for community engagement in phase III cancer treatment trials. The workgroups met via conference call to examine 24 distinct components of design, implementation and dissemination in these trials and develop CBPR-inspired recommendations for each component. A set of guiding principles informed the workgroups’ efforts, including a desire to build upon the efforts of researchers and patient advocates in the cancer clinical trial system who are already working to engage communities as partners and an understanding that while we are challenging the cancer clinical trial system to change, we must also work within the system. An initial set of 55 preliminary draft recommendations were completed in February 2008 and circulated widely for comment.

Vetting and Refining Initial Draft Recommendations

The workgroups reconvened in College Park, MD in March 2008 to review the many comments received on the preliminary draft recommendations and to advance those that are the most feasible and impactful. Project staff and participants are now in the process of revising the preliminary draft recommendations based on the meeting deliberations. Although still in draft form, these recommendations are central to the strategic plan:

July 2007

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.