November 12 2024
Written byWenora Johnson, Patient/Research Advocate (Fight CRC) & NRG Oncology PatientAdvocate Committee Member
Five years ago, the American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Action Network (CAN) sponsored a Summit to better understand the barriers in the cancer clinical trial matching space and create recommendations (see https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cncr.35034).
In October 2024, I was asked to attend the Summit in Washington DC and speak on behalf of the patient advocate experience navigating available clinical trial options. Themes that were discussed during these sessions included finding clinical trials, ongoing background efforts to improve trial matching, insights from providers, trial eligibility data improvement, and the Blue-Button trial matching effort that I will delve more into later in this summary.
Key Message: Cancer clinical trial enrollment depends on the ability to identify appropriate, accessible trials for patients.
This year’s Summit discussion extended among keynote speakers and participants on a cancer patient’s ability to participate in a clinical trial and how it largely depends on finding a trial with eligibility criteria that align with the patient’s clinical condition. Eligibility screening for clinical trials is mainly carried out by the patient's healthcare providers or the study staff at the institution where the patient receives care. On-site clinical trial opportunities are not available for the majority of cancer patients, so improving site‐agnostic matching is an important approach to providing more trial participation opportunities to willing patients.
As a Patient Advocate who currently participates in a clinical trial, I shared my experience as a patient searching for clinical trials using ClinicalTrials.gov, concerns about access to possible clinical trials, social determinates of health (SDOH) around patients not being able to participate or at times even being asked by their provider to participate. I also explained how important the use of my electronic health record (EHR) is in my surveillance care and how helpful it would be in the clinical trial experience.
The ACS CAN announced that it has launched development and testing of a new tool, called “Blue-button”, that can automatically identify relevant clinical trials through one-button clinical trial matching integration within electronic health records (EHRs).The Blue-button tool has the potential to identify comprehensive trial availability within a specified distance from where the patient is located quickly, and by doing so will increase opportunities for patients to maximize access to the latest cancer innovation within their community.Blue-button Clinical Trial Matching for Cancer Patients | American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
You can find the recording of our public-facing discussion at acscan.windrosemedia.com under “Archives.”