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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Important advances in cancer treatments can only be achieved through well-conducted clinical trials. However, despite the large number of available studies, only five percent of new cancer patients participate in clinical trials (Harris Interactive, January 2001). In particular, African Americans' representation in cancer clinical trials is disproportionately low, and their cancer mortality rate is nearly 35.4 percent higher than that of whites (SEER 1973-1996 Cancer Statistics Review, 1999). To speed up the development of new cancer treatments and to ensure that clinical trial results would be valid and applicable across all racial groups, new strategies are needed to increase clinical trials participation particularly in the African American population. Several studies have documented that lack of information is a significant patient-level barrier to clinical trial participation. Fears based on awareness of a history of abuses of the rights of human subjects in biomedical research is also believed to be a barrier to participation. In this study, we will test the effectiveness of an educational video, designed to reflect the cultural diversity in patient population, in increasing breast cancer patients' knowledge and awareness about clinical trials and thus increasing participation. The study population will include both African American and Caucasian women with invasive lung cancer who are new to the Multidisciplinary Lung Clinic at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Two hundred new patients will be randomized to either the control arm or the intervention arm. All study participants will complete a questionnaire to measure their knowledge and attitudes toward clinical trials, at their first and second clinic visit. Between the two testings, patients in the control arm will receive the current standard of care, while patients in the intervention arm will be given the video to review followed by a five to ten minute discussion with an oncology nurse before receiving the current standard of care. Our hypothesis is that the educational videotape will increase patients' knowledge and promote positive attitudes toward cancer clinical trials and thereby increase trial participation.