Why don’t more people with cancer enroll in clinical trials? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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A very low percentage of people who receive Medicare benefits in the US and have cancer enroll in clinical trials, a new study finds. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson reviews the data.

Nelson: If you look at just the group that was on active treatment that’s about 430,000, a little bit more than 8000 were enrolled in a clinical trial, that’s about 1.9%. Trial participants tended to be more likely to be male, a little bit younger, non-Black, live in wealthier zip codes. People who didn’t participate were a little more likely to have comorbidities that might have limited trial participation. It’s disappointing, that means we are not using the real world evidence that we could be collecting by most of the people that have cancer in the country who could participate in a clinical trial to help improve treatment.  :34

Nelson says if you are interested in a clinical trial, the federal government website ClinicalTrials.gov may help you find one. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.