A joint initiative of ENACCT and Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH), Communities as Partners in Cancer Clinical Trials is a 3-year, federally funded initiative to explore the potential for integrating Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) principles into therapeutic cancer clinical research. Communities as Partners seeks to address the poor 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.
In September 2007 and March 2008, ENACCT and CCPH assembled a diverse group of stakeholders to develop a strategic plan for improving accrual rates and addressing persistent disparities in multi-site phase III cancer clinical trials. In October 2008, a landmark report on community engagement in cancer clinical research, Communities as Partners in Cancer Clinical Trials: Changing Research, Practice and Policy was released. The report includes more than 50 recommendations for engaging communities in specific and meaningful ways throughout the clinical research process in order to:
- reduce barriers to diverse participation in cancer clinical trials (CCTs)
- build partnerships that utilize innovative approaches to increase recruitment and retention in cancer treatment clinical trials, especially among ethnic and racial minority groups; and
- ultimately increase participation of ethnic and racial minority groups in CCTs.