ASPO Abstracts
Disparities in cancer clinical trial information-seeking: Findings from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service
Category: Cancer Health Disparities
Conference Year: 2023
Abstract Body:
Purpose: Although cancer clinical trials (CCT) are important for advancing science, clinical care and treatment, and patients' quality of life along the cancercontinuum, they are not always equitably accessed by disadvantaged populations, nor do we fully understand individuals' information-seeking patterns aroundCCT. This descriptive study aims to identify CCT information-seeking behaviors and sociodemographic characteristics of individuals contacting a nationalcancer information service.Methods: Using data from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS) – a longstanding, multichannel resource for cancer information inEnglish and Spanish, we examined CCT inquiries from caregivers, survivors, health professionals, and the general public over a 4-year period. We conducteddescriptive and logistic regression analyses to examine the characteristics of these inquiries and their odds of involving a discussion about CCT.Results: Between September 2018 – September 2022, 101,722 CIS inquiries originated from survivors, caregivers, health professionals, and the general public.Of these, over one-quarter included a CCT discussion (n=27,587). Of the CCT inquiries, 53.6% originated from caregivers, 35.3% from survivors, 6.0% from thepublic, and 5.1% from health professionals. Logistic regression results indicated that inquiries in Spanish had lower odds of a CCT discussion (OR=.26, [.24-.28]).Inquiries emanating from the cancer.gov instant chat service and email had higher odds of discussing CCT (OR=2.25, [2.17-2.33]; OR=1.24, [1.17-1.30], respectively) compared to inquiries made by telephone. Logistic regression findings for inquires with available user sociodemographic information revealedthat users who were older, had lower income and education, no insurance coverage, and resided in rural locales had lower odds of a CCT discussion (allstatistically significant).Conclusions: Findings suggest there are potential disparities in CCT information-seeking among vulnerable populations. These results affirm the continuingneed for multiple, language concordant cancer information platforms to promote and disseminate quality CCT information, thereby enabling equitableawareness of – and ultimately participation in – CCT among all populations.
Keywords: health information-seeking, cancer clinical trials, cancer health disparities