Oncologist’s Role Critical To Clinical Trial Enrollment

Extract

Second in a two-part series.

Although a public education campaign may help to increase patient awareness of cancer clinical trials, recent surveys suggest that it will be important to attack the problem of patient enrollment in trials on other fronts as well. In particular, the surveys indicate that the involvement of the patient’s oncologist is absolutely critical. The National Cancer Institute appears to be taking these data into account, introducing a number of initiatives to make participation in clinical trials easier and more convenient for physicians.

A recent Harris Interactive survey (presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in May) demonstrates that awareness of clinical trials is poor, even among people with cancer (see News, Oct. 4, p. 1556). Of 5,980 patients surveyed, fully 85% were unaware that participation in clinical trials might be an option.

Because every one of those patients has presumably had contact with an oncologist, this figure suggests that oncologists are not informing their patients of the clinical trial option. As Ellen L. Stovall, president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, put it, “Patients—especially the older generation of patients—look to their doctors to take the lead. And particularly when you have cancer, a lot of the skills you have when you go to buy a car or a refrigerator go right out the window: your ability to negotiate, your ability to communicate, your ability to be resourceful. Many people—including someone like General Schwartzkopf who you’d think could command anything—basically say the diagnosis brings them to their knees. They really do look to their doctors.”