A study on recruitment of black Americans into clinical trials through a cultural competence lens.

Black Americans are stricken disproportionately with cancer. However, they continue to be underrepresented in clinical trials aimed at systematically investigating treatment methods or studying the effectiveness of cancer detection and prevention. Because participation in clinical trials can offer patients access to state-of-the-art therapy in a research context, it is imperative that black Americans have proportional representation in such trials. The purpose of this article is to describe findings from the first phase of a two-phase project on recruitment of black Americans into clinical trials. In the first phase, physicians and data managers in a large, urban prestigious cancer center were asked to identify factors they believed prevent black Americans from participating in clinical trials. Findings from this study were congruent with the literature about why physicians and other health care providers believe black Americans do not participate in clinical trials. However, the findings were examined through a cultural competence lens, adding a fresh perspective to the consideration of what interventions can be developed to eradicate underrepresentation of black Americans in clinical trials. The second phase will assess the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of black Americans related to clinical trials in the geographic area of the cancer center.