Underrepresentation of racial minorities in clinical trials for cancer and other diseases isn’t new; there has been a significant dearth in the representation of minorities in oncology trials for years.
There is a strong consensus among all key stakeholders about the importance of addressing the problem of inadequate representation of minority patients in clinical trials and an urgent desire to develop sustainable solutions, as demonstrated at a recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting. Participants included leaders from across the cancer ecosystem: patient organizations, industry, government, researchers, academic medical centers and community-based organizations.
Between 1999 and 2019, the percentage of underrepresented groups in National Cancer Institute (NCI) clinical trials increased from 14 percent to 25 percent, according to Dr. Douglas Lowy, NCI principal deputy director. “There is a still a lot of room for improvement,” he noted. Indeed, evidence shows the need for very significant improvement, particularly in cancer trials. Pfizer found that from 2011 to 2020, only 15.8 percent of its oncology trials had a patient population at or above census for Black or African American patients.
Read More: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3265475-how-to-reduce-racial-disparities-in-cancer/