Use of the National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program screening and accrual log to address cancer clinical trial accrual

Authors

Diane St Germain
Andrea M Denicoff
Eileen P Dimond
Angela Carrigan
Rebecca A Enos
Maria M Gonzalez
Kathy Wilkinson
Michelle A Mathiason
Brenda Duggan
Shaun Einolf
Worta McCaskill-Stevens
Donna M Bryant
Michael A. Thompson, Advocate Aurora HealthFollow
Stephen S Grubbs
Ronald S Go

Recommended Citation

St. Germain D, Denicoff AM, Dimond EP, et al. Use of the National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program screening and accrual log to address cancer clinical trial accrual. J Oncol Pract. 2014;10(2):73-80.

Affiliations

Aurora Research Institute

Abstract

PURPOSE: Screening logs have the potential to help oncology clinical trial programs at the site level, as well as trial leaders, address enrollment in real time. Such an approach could be especially helpful in improving representation of racial/ethnic minority and other underrepresented populations in clinical trials.

Use of the National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program screening and accrual log to address cancer clinical trial accrual. The National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) developed a screening log. Log data collected from March 2009 through May 2012 were analyzed for number of patients screened versus enrolled, including for demographic subgroups; screening methods; and enrollment barriers, including reasons for ineligibility and provider and patient reasons for declining to offer or participate in a trial. User feedback was obtained to better understand perceptions of log utility.

RESULTS: Of 4,483 patients screened, 18.4% enrolled onto NCCCP log trials. Reasons for nonenrollment were ineligibility (51.6%), patient declined (25.8%), physician declined (15.6%), urgent need for treatment (6.6%), and trial suspension (0.4%). Major reasons for patients declining were no desire to participate in trials (43.2%) and preference for standard of care (39%). Major reasons for physicians declining to offer trials were preference for standard of care (53%) and concerns about tolerability (29.3%). Enrollment rates onto log trials did not differ between white and black (P = .15) or between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients (P = .73). Other races had lower enrollment rates than whites and blacks. Sites valued the ready access to log data on enrollment barriers, with some sites changing practices to address those barriers.

CONCLUSION: Use of screening logs to document enrollment barriers at the local level can facilitate development of strategies to enhance clinical trial accrual.

Document Type

Article

PubMed ID

24424313