An important goal of the Abramson Cancer Center is to serve and engage our community and that includes improving access to clinical trials for all patients, said senior author
Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the ACC and vice president for Cancer Programs in the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Aligning the number of Black patients with cancer we care for with the number enrolled in our trials is how we can help bring more equitable care to the community, close gaps in disparities, and sustain trust. There s more work to be done to improve access and inclusion of minority groups, and the impact of this outreach and engagement effort is an important step forward.
How to address low representation of Black Americans in cancer trials
The Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania (ACC) has succeeded in more than doubling the enrollment of Black patients into cancer clinical trials following a five-year community outreach plan. The success of the community engagement efforts, which increased patient enrollment of Black participants from 12 to 24%, will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting on June 5.
Black Americans have typically had low representation in cancer research, exemplifying yet another health inequity that affects access to cancer research and treatment. Although Black individuals account for 13.4% of the U.S. population, a mere 5% of Black patients with cancer are enrolled in clinical trials.
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The University of Pennsylvania Health System and RWJBarnabas Health have joined Houston Methodist in mandating employees get vaccinated against COVID-19, spokespeople for the two health systems confirmed Thursday.
Penn Medicine in Philadelphia is dictating all clinical and other employees get fully inoculated by September 1. RWJBarnabas in New Jersey is requiring supervisors and executives to be fully vaccinated by June 30; the system has not issued a mandate for all employees, but it is anticipated that it will eventually be required, its spokesperson wrote in an email to
MedPage Today. Both systems are allowing employees to apply for medical or religious exemptions.
Penn University more than doubles the percentage of Black patients in cancer clinical trials
A five-year community outreach and engagement effort by the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania (ACC) to increase enrollment of Black patients into cancer clinical trials more than doubled the percentage of participants, improving access and treatment for a group with historically low representation in cancer research.
The percentage of patients enrolled into a treatment clinical trial, for example, increased from 12 to 24 percent. A significant increase was also observed in non-therapeutic interventional and non-interventional trials.
The findings were published today in an abstract to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting on June 5.