The Kansas Cancer Institute plans to host a regional conference on recruiting and retaining minorities in cancer clinical trials. The conference will be held in Kansas City on June 2, 1997, and will serve the states of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Illinois. Efforts to recruit African-Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians will be emphasized. The conference will disseminate information to clinical investigators about strategies necessary to improve local and regional efforts to recruit and retain minorities in cancer prevention and treatment trials; promote long-term collaboration between cancer clinical investigators and minority community leaders in order to increase the representation of minorities in clinical trials; promote rigorous testing and formal evaluation of clinical trial recruitment strategies; and disseminate findings from the conference to NCI, to a broad base of researchers, and to minority groups. Conference attendees will be clinical investigators, their recruitment personnel, representatives from patient advocacy groups, and representatives from minority community organizations in the five-state area. A scientific committee chaired by Analee E. Beisecker, Ph.D., and including March A. List, Ph.D.; J. Wendall Goodwin, M.D.; Kathy Ward; Stephen Williamson, M.D.; Billy Rogers; Mercedes Bern-Klug, M.S.W., M.S.; Donna Beachler; and Norge Jerome, Ph.D.; has selected speakers and will continue to make program adjustments, compile community profiles, and prepare the conference proceedings. A local planning committee, chaired by Penny Reese, M.A., and including Shelly Peterson, Paula Lang, Debbie Graham, Aura Morgan-Clarke, and Ximena llacaca-Somoza, M.D., will oversee the administrative logistics associated with the conference and dissemination strategies. Conference speakers will provide information on patient and physician barriers to minority recruitment for clinical research, community outreach; developing detailed demographic profiles of communities and clinical populations; and developing community-based coalitions, media promotion, evaluation, and action plans. Speakers will include nationally-recognized experts on recruiting African-Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians for cancer research and clinical investigators and leaders from minority organizations. State work groups will prepare a strategic plan for minority recruitment in each state. Evaluation of outcomes will include a two-month and a six-month follow-up to assess utilization of recruitment strategies identified at the conference and changes in minority recruitment to clinical trials.
