Blog Entry: August 17, 2009

ENACCT recently attended a conference entitled, Health Equity: Through the Cancer Lens, jointly sponsored by the American Cancer Society's Office of Health Disparities and the National Medical Association. A highlight of the meeting was the release of the ACS-NMA consensus report: Cancer in Minorities and the Underserved. 

The purpose of the report was to identify key trends in the national response to cancer disparities and put forth recommendations for future efforts and activities. The report covers a range of cancer issues, including prevention and screening, treatment, clinical research, and public policy. 

We were pleased to see that the ACS-NMA report contains some of the same principles and strategies contained in the ENACCT-CCPH landmark report, Communities as Partners in Cancer Clinical Trials: Changing Research, Practice and Policy, which includes detailed recommendations for engaging communities in specific and meaningful ways throughout the cancer clinical research process, with the goal of increasing participation of ethnic and racial minority groups in cancer clinical trials.

For example, the ACS-NMA report states:

• There remains a continuing need for the greater inclusion of minorities and/or low-income groups in clinical trials, so that new treatment options are fully tested using multiple ethnicities.
• ... One much-cited factor that leads to the continuation of health disparities across ethnic groups is the insufficient representation of ethnic/racial groups in clinical trials. In some cases, this insufficiency is expressed by the under-representation of minorities... Such outcomes suggest a need for a more intensive and effective recruitment of minorities into clinical trials.
• Outreach and education are needed to better inform health disparity populations not only about clinical trials, but about cancer as a general risk factor...Efforts are being made to address the inadequate participation of minorities in clinical trials. [Selected studies have] experienced exceptional success in the recruitment of both Latinos and African Americans into clinical trials through community-based strategies.
• Primary areas of [research] investigation must include healthcare system structure, clinical and basic science, and state and community assessment. The community-based research model should be more widely adopted.

It's encouraging to see another high-level report calling for action to improve cancer clinical trial participation, especially among minorities and the underserved. And more national groups advocating for community-based approaches to cancer research - as ENACCT and CCPH have done - is a step in the right direction.