Reducing barriers to patient enrollment in cancer clinical trials

Clinical trials are the key step in advancing potential new cancer treatments out of the lab and into the clinic. Patient participation in trials is crucial to this success. But only a small fraction of patients end up enrolling in a cancer clinical trial due to barriers that make participation difficult or even impossible. As a result, approximately 20% of cancer clinical trials fail due to insufficient patient enrollment. Understanding and addressing these barriers is critical to accelerating progress in cancer research. Mark Fleury, PhD, is Policy Principal at ACS CAN – the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (https://www.fightcancer.org/). Dr. Fleury joined the podcast to help us understand where we are falling short and how we can reduce these barriers to patient enrollment in clinical trials. 5:36 – What is ACS CAN? 7:55 – A recent piece of cancer-related legislation where ACS CAN was involved that he is particularly proud of 13:07 – Why clinical trials in cancer research are so important to patients 16:23 – On barriers to clinical trial enrollment: ACS CAN resources note that “approximately 20% of cancer clinical trials fail due to insufficient patient enrollment.” Why are we falling short? 22:50 – Some of the recommendations ACS CAN has helped identify that would reduce barriers to enrollment in cancer clinical trials 27:04 – How clinical trial matching services could be improved 32:38 – On disparities in clinical trial participation