Black patients with metastatic breast cancer willing to consider clinical trials

Black patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) are willing to consider participating in clinical trials, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held from June 3 to 7 in Chicago.

Stephanie Walker, B.S.N., from the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance in New York City, and colleagues conducted a survey of U.S. adults living with MBC to examine barriers to trial participation for Black patients. Overall, 24 percent of the 424 survey respondents self-identified as Black.

The researchers found that 83 percent of Black respondents were somewhat or very likely to consider participating in a trial. However, 40 percent of Black respondents reported that trials had not been discussed by anyone on their care team. Reasons for Black respondents not participating in a trial included concerns about side effects and effectiveness (73 and 63 percent, respectively). Compared with non-Black respondents, Black respondents were less likely to indicate that they trust trials and trust people of all races/ethnicities to get fair treatment (73 versus 91 percent and 32 versus 56 percent, respectively). Black respondents were more likely than non-Black respondents to believe unstudied treatments may be harmful (57 versus 31 percent). Compared with non-Black respondents, Black respondents were more likely to value receiving information about the trial from someone with the same racial/ethnic identity (67 versus 10 percent), with breast cancer (73 versus 44 percent) or MBC (73 versus 51 percent), or who had participated in a trial (72 versus 48 percent).

"All stakeholder groups have a role to play in increasing Black patient participation in MBC clinical trials," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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