Funded by Hooters of America, LLC
The reasons why cancer patients do or do not participate in cancer (clinical trials) research are complex. Often this is due to the lack of awareness of which studies are occurring by both the patient and their primary care clinicians. Another very important reason is that patients, especially patients that do not speak English, are not invited to participate because the research team does not have non-English speakers or study materials in the patient’s language. We at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center (MCC) have the opportunity to better understand and address low clinical trials participation among our largest under-represented racial/ethnic group, Hispanics. Working with a multidisciplinary team of physicians and non-physician scientists, we propose to 1.) Educate community providers about breast cancer trials at MCC, and 2.) Assess specific interests and needs among the MCC breast cancer team, and combine this with existing evidence, including interview findings (knowledge and Hispanic from a recent (2016) V Foundation grant), to develop and implement minority clinical trial accrual training for the MCC breast cancer team. By focusing on minority breast cancer patients, V Foundation funds complement and expand our emerging efforts to increase minority clinical trials enrollment (accrual) and related outreach and inform how to intervene with MCC patients, providers, and leadership. We are particularly interested in targeting Hispanic breast cancer patients because they are the largest minority group in San Diego County, the region served by the MCC.
