) The Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (CCCWFU) proposes to conduct a regional conference to enhance the recruitment of minorities to cancer clinical trials. To significantly reduce cancer morbidity and mortality requires state-of-the-art treatment; and, perhaps more for cancer than for any other disease, the results of clinical trials define state-of-the-art care. Yet, less than 3 percent of patents with cancer enroll in trials, and the participation of minorities is even lower. Recent studies have identified a variety of barriers to participation that result in under-representation of minorities in clinical trials. To address these barriers, the CCCWFU will develop a day-long conference to be held in 1997 for clinical trials researchers, physicians who enroll patents in clinical trials, and clinical trials staff to increase minority participation in regional trials. The conference will feature an overview of the status of minority participation in national and regional research; a geographic overview of regional participation in clinical trials; a focus on successful regional studies targeted to minority populations; a report to the researchers from pre-conference focus groups conducted with minority cancer survivors; a panel discussion of the barriers that inhibit participation; and several break-out sessions that will offer opportunities to address specific issues and barriers, such as rethinking design criteria; strategies for increasing the involvement of physicians with minority populations; recruiting within the limitations of managed care and insurance; ways to design culturally-sensitive materials; and a look at advocacy and legislation. Participants will be encouraged to develop specific strategies to move beyond the barriers identified in the conference. Speakers will represent the regional expertise located in the five-state catchment area served by the Southeast Cancer Control Consortium (SCCC): North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee. The regional nature of this conference is supported by the involvement of the Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the state, the North Carolina Advisory Committee on Cancer Coordination and Control, the Central Cancer Registry of North Carolina, the Southeast Cancer Control Consortium and the North Carolina Oncology Society, the Cancer Information Service of the Carolinas, the cancer committees of the North Carolina Medical Society and the Old North State Medical Society, the North Carolina Office of Minority Health, and the proposed South Atlantic Corporation of the American Cancer Society that includes North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
