Within a health care system with equal access to care, the clinical trials population was well representative of the general oncology population, according to a recent study from researchers at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study of members of an integrated health care system diagnosed with invasive malignancies between 2013 and 2017 and compared demographic of the general oncology population compared with those screened and enrolled in clinical trials.
Of 84,977 patients with a cancer diagnosis, 2,606 were screened for clinical trial participation (1,372 enrolled. About half (47%) of this population were of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, according to the researchers.
Both the percent of Latinx/Hispanic (25.8% vs. 24.0%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.72 to 1.05) and African American/Black (10.9% vs. 11.1%; OR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.75 to 1.11) participants mirrored that of the general oncology population when Non-Hispanic Whites were the reference. Odds ratios were adjusted for gender, geocoded median household income, cancer type, and stage). Asian/Pacific Islanders also had similar odds of clinical trial enrollment (OR = 1.08; 95% CI, 0.92 to 1.27).
