Clinical trials for cancer help us gain knowledge about the disease and improve diagnoses, treatment, and care for current and future cancer patients. There is often a lack of diversity in cancer clinical trials with African American people being highly underrepresented. There are various barriers to participating in clinical trials including transportation to the site, costs, negative beliefs about clinical trials, and distrust with the medical system. These barriers make it challenging to recruit African American people in clinical trials.

They found that “more than half of the participants (63.3%; n = 19) reported that they believed a clinical trial could help treat their cancer, and 61.3% (n = 19) indicated they were willing to participate if it could ultimately help other people in the future…Fear of clinical trials and lack of trust in research was reported in 16% and 8% of the participants, respectively.”

“More than half of the participants reported that they believed in clinical trials, with results that showed a significant association between education and belief in research scores…Participants with higher belief in research scores were more willing to participate in clinical trials for personal or altruistic reasons…Nearly three-fourths of the participants reported being aware of a clinical trial, yet a high proportion did not receive clinical trial information from their physicians.”

A lack of diversity in cancer clinical trials can lead to further disparities in health outcomes. Therefore, it becomes important to recruit African American people for these clinical trials. There are various ways to address this underrepresentation issue. This research suggests that people are not receiving information about clinical trials from their physicians. Increasing physician involvement in informing patients about the clinical trials that are happening may help increase enrollment. Understanding the fears and apprehension patients may have toward clinical trials and earning their trust can play a role, also.