Recruitment practices for U.S. minority and underserved populations in NRG oncology: Results of an online survey
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Cancer clinical trials (CCT) provide much of the evidence for clinical guidelines and standards of care. But low levels of CCT participation are well documented, especially for minorities. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We conducted an online survey of 556 recruitment practices across the NRG Oncology network. Survey aims were 1) to learn how sites recruit minority/underserved populations; 2) to better understand the catchment areas of the NRG institutions; and 3) to aid in planning education programs for accrual of minority/underserved populations. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 34.9%. The most effective methods reported for recruiting minority/underserved participants were patient navigators (44.4%) and translators (38.9%). All institutions reported using a mechanism for eligibility screening and 71% of institutions reported using a screening/enrollment tracking system. CCT training was required at 78.1% and cultural competency training was required at 47.5% of responding institutions. Only 19.9% of sites used community partners to assist with minority recruitment and just 37.1% of respondents reported a defined catchment area. Sites reported very little race and ethnicity data. CONCLUSION: This NRG Oncology online survey provides useful data for improvements in trial enrollment and training to recruit minority/underserved populations to CCT. Areas for further investigation include web-based methods for recruitment and tracking, cultural competency training, definition of catchment areas, use of patient navigators, and community partnerships. The survey results will guide recruitment training programs.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A total of 12 included articles were assessed with an MMAT score below 3, including two RCTs, three non-randomised studies, six quantitative descriptive studies and one mixed methods study.
“A total of 12 articles were assessed with a score of below 3. This included two RCTs [61, 66], three non-randomised studies [15, 46, 64], six quantitative descriptive studies [9, 37, 38, 40, 57, 58] and one mixed methods study [60].”
From Enablers and barriers of clinical trial participation in adult patients from minority ethnic groups: a systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [37]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Underrepresentation of Patients 65 Years of Age or Older in Cancer-Treatment Trials
Hutchins, L. F., Unger, J. M., Crowley, J. J., Coltman, C. A., & Albain, K. S. (1999) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejm199912303412706 · Cited by 2,171 · see citing works
Participation of Patients 65 Years of Age or Older in Cancer Clinical Trials
Lewis, J. H., Kilgore, M. L., Goldman, D. P., Trimble, E. L., Kaplan, R. S., Montello, M. J., Housman, M. G., & Escarce, J. J. (2003) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2003.08.010 · Cited by 1,029 · see citing works
Association of Insurance with Cancer Care Utilization and Outcomes
Ward, E., Halpern, M. T., Schrag, N. M., Cokkinides, V. E., Desantis, C. E., Bandi, P., Siegel, R. L., Stewart, A. K., & Jemal, A. (2008) · CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians · doi:10.3322/ca.2007.0011 · Cited by 726 · see citing works
The Role of Clinical Trial Participation in Cancer Research: Barriers, Evidence, and Strategies
Unger, J. M., Cook, E., Tai, E., & Bleyer, A. (2016) · American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book · doi:10.1200/edbk_156686 · Cited by 665 · see citing works
Self-citationBarriers to Clinical Trial Enrollment in Racial and Ethnic Minority Patients With Cancer
Hamel, L., Penner, L., Albrecht, T., Heath, E., Gwede, C., & Eggly, S. (2016) · Cancer Control: Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Cente · doi:10.1177/107327481602300404 · Cited by 426 · see citing works
The Role of Clinical Trial Participation in Cancer Research: Barriers, Evidence, and Strategies
Unger, J. M., Cook, E. D., Tai, E. W., et al. (2016) · American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book · doi:10.14694/edbk_156686 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
Self-citationReasons for accepting or declining to participate in randomized clinical trials for cancer therapy
Jenkins, V. A., & Fallowfield, L. J. (2000) · British Journal of Cancer · doi:10.1054/bjoc.2000.1142 · Cited by 317 · see citing works
Heller, C. A., Balls‐Berry, J. E., Nery, J. D., Erwin, P. J., Littleton, D. M., Kim, M., & Kuo, W. P. (2014) · Contemporary Clinical Trials · doi:10.1016/j.cct.2014.08.004 · Cited by 289 · see citing works
Griggs, J. J., Maingi, S., Blinder, V. S., Denduluri, N., Khorana, A. A., Norton, L., Francisco, M., Wollins, D. S., & Rowland, J. H. (2017) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2016.72.0441 · Cited by 260 · see citing works
Comparison of Survival Outcomes Among Cancer Patients Treated In and Out of Clinical Trials
Unger, J. M., Barlow, W. E., Martin, D. P., Ramsey, S. D., LeBlanc, M. L., Etzioni, R., & Hershman, D. L. (2014) · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · doi:10.1093/jnci/dju002 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Otado, J., Kwagyan, J., Edwards, D., Ukaegbu, A., Rockcliffe, F., & Osafo, N. (2015) · Clinical and Translational Science · doi:10.1111/cts.12285 · Cited by 231 · see citing works
Patient Income Level and Cancer Clinical Trial Participation
Unger, J. M., Gralow, J. R., Albain, K. S., Ramsey, S. D., & Hershman, D. L. (2015) · JAMA Oncology · doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.3924 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
Kornblith, A. B., Kemeny, M. M., Peterson, B. L., Wheeler, J., Crawford, J., Bartlett, N. L., Fleming, G. F., Graziano, S. L., Muss, H. B., Cohen, H. J., et al. (2002) · Cancer · doi:10.1002/cncr.10792 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Denicoff, A. M., McCaskill‐Stevens, W., Grubbs, S. S., Bruinooge, S. S., Comis, R. L., Devine, P., Dilts, D. M., Duff, M., Ford, J. G., Joffe, S., et al. (2013) · Journal of Oncology Practice · doi:10.1200/jop.2013.001119 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Participation of the Elderly Population in Clinical Trials: Barriers and Solutions
Denson, A. C., & Mahipal, A. (2014) · Cancer Control · doi:10.1177/107327481402100305 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Fouad, M. N., Acemgil, A., Bae, S., Forero, A., Lisovicz, N. F., Martin, M. Y., Oates, G. R., Partridge, E. E., & Vickers, S. M. (2016) · Journal of Oncology Practice · doi:10.1200/jop.2015.008946 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Reducing patient eligibility criteria in cancer clinical trials.
George, S. L. (1996) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.1996.14.4.1364 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Kimmick, G. G., Peterson, B. L., Kornblith, A. B., Mandelblatt, J. S., Johnson, J. L., Wheeler, J., Heinze, R., Cohen, H. J., & Muss, H. B. (2005) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2005.01.222 · Cited by 127 · see citing works
Javid, S. H., Unger, J. M., Gralow, J. R., Moinpour, C. M., Wozniak, A. J., Goodwin, J. W., Lara, P. N., Williams-Piehota, P. A., Hutchins, L. F., Gotay, C. C., et al. (2012) · The Oncologist · doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2011-0384 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Modernizing Eligibility Criteria for Molecularly Driven Trials
Kim, E. S., Bernstein, D. S., Hilsenbeck, S. G., et al. (2015) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2015.62.1854 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Salman, A., Nguyen, C., Lee, Y., & Cooksey-James, T. (2015) · Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health · doi:10.1007/s10903-015-0198-9 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Freedman, R. A., Foster, J. C., Seisler, D. K., Lafky, J. M., Muss, H. B., Cohen, H. J., Mandelblatt, J. S., Winer, E. P., Hudis, C. A., Partridge, A. H., et al. (2017) · Journal of Clinical Oncology · doi:10.1200/jco.2016.69.4182 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Joseph, G., & Dohan, D. P. (2009) · Contemporary Clinical Trials · doi:10.1016/j.cct.2009.06.009 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Mitchell, A. P., Harrison, M. R., Walker, M. S., George, D. J., Abernethy, A. P., & Hirsch, B. R. (2015) · Journal of Oncology Practice · doi:10.1200/jop.2015.004929 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Enrolling Minority and Underserved Populations in Cancer Clinical Research
Wallington, S. F., Dash, C., Sheppard, V. B., Goode, T. D., Oppong, B. A., Dodson, E., Hamilton, R. N., & Adams-Campbell, L. L. (2015) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2015.07.036 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Barriers to Enrollment of Elderly Adults in Early-Phase Cancer Clinical Trials
Basche, M., Barón, A. E., Eckhardt, S., Balducci, L., Persky, M. S., Levin, A. R., Jackson, N., Zeng, C. X., Vranas, P., & Steiner, J. F. (2008) · Journal of Oncology Practice · doi:10.1200/jop.0842001 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
Susukida, R., Crum, R. M., Ebnesajjad, C. F., Stuart, E. A., & Mojtabai, R. (2017) · Addiction · doi:10.1111/add.13789 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Warner, E. T., Ballman, K. V., Strand, C. A., et al. (2016) · Breast Cancer Research and Treatment · doi:10.1007/s10549-016-3918-5 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Clinical trial discussion, referral, and recruitment: physician, patient, and system factors
Kaplan, C. P., Nápoles, A. M., Dohan, D. P., et al. (2013) · Cancer Causes & Control · doi:10.1007/s10552-013-0173-5 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Melisko, M., Hassin, F., Metzroth, L., Moore, D., Brown, B. A., Patel, K., Rugo, H. S., & Tripathy, D. (2005) · Clinical Breast Cancer · doi:10.3816/cbc.2005.n.008 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
Tanner, A. H., Kim, S., Friedman, D. B., Foster, C. B., & Bergeron, C. D. (2014) · Contemporary Clinical Trials · doi:10.1016/j.cct.2014.12.010 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Nápoles, A. M., Cook, E. D., Ginossar, T., Knight, K. D., & Ford, M. E. (2016) · Advances in cancer research · doi:10.1016/bs.acr.2016.08.004 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Self-citationEffect of Medical Oncologists' Attitudes on Accrual to Clinical Trials in a Community Setting
Somkin, C. P., Ackerson, L., Husson, G., Gomez, V., Kolevska, T., Goldstein, D. S., & Fehrenbacher, L. (2013) · Journal of Oncology Practice · doi:10.1200/jop.2013.001120 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Discussions About Clinical Trials Among Patients With Newly Diagnosed Lung and Colorectal Cancer
Kehl, K. L., Arora, N., Schrag, D., et al. (2014) · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · doi:10.1093/jnci/dju216 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Evolution in the eligibility criteria of randomized controlled trials for systemic cancer therapies
Srikanthan, A., Vera-Badillo, F., Ethier, J.-L., Goldstein, R. S., Templeton, A. J., Ocaña, A., Šeruga, B., & Amir, E. (2015) · Cancer Treatment Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.ctrv.2015.12.006 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Lamont, E. B., Schilsky, R. L., He, Y., Muss, H. B., Cohen, H. J., Hurria, A., Meilleur, A., Kindler, H. L., Venook, A. P., Lilenbaum, R., et al. (2014) · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · doi:10.1093/jnci/dju336 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Patient participation in cancer clinical trials: A pilot test of lay navigation
Cartmell, K. B., Bonilha, H. S., Matson, T., Bryant, D. C., Zapka, J. G., Bentz, T. A., Ford, M. E., Halbert, C. H., Simpson, K. N., & Alberg, A. J. (2016) · Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications · doi:10.1016/j.conctc.2016.04.005 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Transforming Clinical Trial Eligibility Criteria to Reflect Practical Clinical Application
Kim, E. S., Atlas, J., Ison, G., & Ersek, J. L. (2016) · American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book · doi:10.1200/edbk_155880 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Harrigan, R., Perez, M. H., Beaudry, S., et al. (2013) · Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health · doi:10.1007/s10903-013-9786-8 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Ezeugwu, C. O., Laird, A., Mullins, C. D., et al. (2011) · Journal of the National Medical Association · doi:10.1016/s0027-9684(15)30438-7 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Dressler, L. G., Deal, A. M., Owzar, K., Watson, D. M., Donahue, K., Friedman, P. N., Ratain, M. J., & McLeod, H. L. (2015) · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · doi:10.1093/jnci/djv188 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Hereditary cancer testing in patients with ovarian cancer using a 25-gene panel
Langer, L. R., McCoy, H., Kidd, J., Evans, B. A., Brown, K. L., Saam, J. R., & WENSTRUP, R. J. (2016) · The Journal of Community and Supportive Oncology · doi:10.12788/jcso.0181 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [33]Ko N.Y. Fu J.L. Lane S.C. Cancer clinical trial enrollment of diverse and underserved patients within an urban safety net hospital J. Community Support Oncol. 13 2015 429 435 26863873
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Nouvini, R., Parker, P. A., Malling, C. D., Godwin, K., & Costas‐Muñiz, R. (2022) · Cancer · doi:10.1002/cncr.34454 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Alarcón Garavito, G. A., Gilchrist, K., Ciurtin, C., Khanna, S., Chambers, P., McNally, N., Merivale, E., Carr, E., Yu, R., & Vindrola-Padros, C. (2025) · Trials · doi:10.1186/s13063-025-08769-y · Cited by 42 · see citing works
“This included two RCTs [61, 66], three non-randomised studies [15, 46, 64], six quantitative descriptive studies [9, 37, 38, 40, 57, 58] and one mixed methods study [60].”
- Authors
- Cook, E. D., Yeager, K. A., Cecchini, R. S., Boparai, J., Brown, C. L., Duncan, M., Cronin, W. M., & Paskett, E. D.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US)
- Emory University (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- NRG Oncology (US)
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cook, Elise D.
- Venue
- Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-06
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 100-104
- ISSN
- 2451-8654 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6046466
- OpenAlex
- W2791147947
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 0.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- NCORP (UG1CA189867)
- NRG Oncology Operations (U10CA180868)
- NRG Oncology SDMC (U10CA180822)
- National Cancer Institute
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Cultural Competency in Health Care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Global Cancer Incidence and Screening
- Keywords
- cancer clinical trials, minority recruitment, underserved populations, patient navigators, translators, cultural competence training, eligibility screening, catchment area, community partnerships, recruitment training
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
