Black and Hispanic patients are underrepresented in the clinical trials used to develop the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) treatment guidelines for endometrial cancer, according to a study presented at the SGO 2022 Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer.

Representation from racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials that support guidelines is “essential to understanding real-world outcomes,” said study author Amita Kulkarni, MD, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, New York.

“The objective of our study was to examine the NCCN endometrial cancer guidelines for preferred systemic therapy regimens and describe how race and ethnicity were reported in the study references,” Dr Kulkarni explained.

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The researchers identified the trials cited to support the preferred treatment recommendations for endometrial cancer in version 4.2021 of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines for uterine neoplasms.

The team then compared the representation of Black and Hispanic patients in these trials to the proportion of Black and Hispanic patients with endometrial cancer seen in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) US Cancer Statistics Database.

Of the 13 trials cited by the guidelines, 10 met the inclusion criteria. However, only 3 trials reported race data and 2 trials reported ethnicity data.

There were 663 patients who participated in the 3 trials that reported on race. In these studies, 7.4% of patients were Black. This is a significant difference from the CDC data, in which 9.9% of endometrial cancer patients were Black (P <.001).

There were 610 patients who participated in the 2 trials that reported ethnicity data. In these studies, 3.0% of patients were Hispanic. Again, this is a significant difference from the CDC data, in which 7.6% of endometrial cancer patients were Hispanic (P <.001).

“Moving forward, we must continue to do more to prioritize minority patient recruitment as well as transparency with reporting on race and ethnicity information in therapeutic trials,” Dr Kulkarni said. “This will help to ensure that the treatment guidelines that are developed based on these critical studies accurately reflect and translate to our diverse real-world patient populations.”

Disclosures: Dr Kulkarni reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.

Read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor’s coverage of SGO 2022 by visiting the conference page.

Reference

Kulkarni A, Daifotis H, Melamed A, et al. Black and Hispanic patient representation in NCCN-recommended systemic therapy regimens for endometrial cancer. Presented at SGO 2022; March 18-21, 2022. Abstract 15.