Explore how evolving care models, policy, and workforce innovation are expanding access to cancer clinical trials in the latest issue of the ACORI Research Review Newsletter. Articles highlight real-world approaches—including decentralized and hybrid trial designs, pharmacist-led education, and state-level policy reform—while examining persistent gaps in rural participation. Gain strategies to advance equity, access, and patient-centered research across community oncology settings.
This issue of the ACORI Research Review Newsletter examines how trust, access, and infrastructure are shaping the future of cancer clinical research. Newsletter articles explore the patient and care team perspectives that influence trial participation, national efforts to expand equitable access through AI-enabled navigation and clinical trial matching, and strategies to sustain the clinical research workforce. From decentralized and mobile trial models designed to reach rural populations to community-based networks expanding adolescent and young adult (AYA) enrollment, these stories highlight practical, scalable approaches to foster inclusion and participation in community cancer research.
The ACORI Q3 Research Review Newsletter spotlights innovative efforts to advance equity, efficiency, and access in cancer research. From expanding the role of advanced practice providers (APPs) in early-phase trials to reimagining clinical research through virtual staffing, decentralized models, and tools embedded within electronic health records, each story highlights practical strategies that drive progress. Explore how academic and community programs alike are breaking down barriers, mentoring new investigators, and shaping the future of oncology research across the country.
Discover how UNC Chapel Hill’s hybrid model for decentralized clinical trials is expanding cancer research. Learn about Stanford’s Investigator & Oncology Research Nurse Professional (ORNP) skills workshop and how it has served as an invaluable resource. Learn how collaborations with community cancer centers can help to improve representation in clinical trials and how this has generated change for patients with multiple myeloma. Learn about Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR)—a nonprofit supporting patient-centered clinical cancer research—and some of the ACCC member institutions that it has awarded. Gain insights into how the Seena Magowitz Foundation is impacting pancreatic cancer support through its patient-centric approach. Learn more about this year’s AMCCBS Clinical Research Award and David King Community Clinical Scientist Award winners.
Learn how artificial intelligence (AI) can accelerate drug development through the generation of digital twins. Gain insights from a recent University of Maryland study that uncovered how faith might drive medical-decision making in Black patient populations. Uncover the value that clinical trial education can bring to Native American communities in closing trial participation gaps for this patient group. Review the ways clinical trial nurse navigators can improve trial screening and enrollment and how University of Florida Health Care Center integrated this role into its own clinical research infrastructure. Learn how some cancer programs have incorporated APPs to aid in the expansion of access to clinical trials and the resulting impacts.
Uncover proposed solutions to improving clinical trial access devised by key stakeholders at the ACORI Clinical Trial Design Summit. Review proposed strategies for improving geographic access to clinical trials. Learn how Avera Cancer Institute is leveraging their CancerTrialMatch application to streamline clinical trial navigation and how the PanCAN Clinical Trial Finder is simplifying pancreatic clinical trial search with their robust database and case managers. Discover what some cancer centers are doing to destigmatize and improve access to lung cancer clinical trials for Hispanic patients. Learn how ACT WONDER2S seeks to increase referral and enrollment of Black and Hispanic patients to therapeutic clinical trials.
In this issue, learn how the WiTT Support Registry is addressing non-clinical burdens through personalized support as well as expanding insights into social determinants of health. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is improving and personalizing blood cancer clinical trial matching through its Clinical Trial Support Center and nurse navigators. This issue also dives into the impact of the 2021 lung cancer screening updates and smoking cessation efforts like Courage-To-Quit®, the evolving role of Advanced Practice Providers in research as well as training tools and resources, AI’s influence in healthcare with a focus on recommendations for compliance and accountability, and Sanford Health’s journey in decentralizing clinical trials to improve rural cancer care and the development of future clinical researchers.
In this issue, we recognize National Cancer Survivorship Month by highlighting research efforts aimed at enhancing quality of life for cancer survivors across the US. The winners of the 2024 ACCC Clinical Research Award and the David King Community Clinical Specialist Award are revealed, as well as their meaningful contributions to the practice of oncology in the community setting. We feature the novel N-Power Medicine technology platform, designed to integrate clinical trial enrollment into routine patient care. Both clinic and patient barriers to clinical trial enrollment in the rural setting are discussed and solutions are explored, with links to resources tailored to community oncology practices serving rural populations. Lastly, the Tigerlily Clinical Trial Finder Tool is reviewed, which empowers patients with breast cancer to identify potential clinical trials for which they may be eligible.
In this issue, learn about the unique challenges presented as younger populations are increasingly diagnosed with colorectal cancer, disparities in outcomes among underrepresented groups with multiple myeloma, AACR's inaugural 2023 conference discussion on recent advances in kidney cancer research, the innovative work of BioOncology Institute and Biocytics and their use of the Human Application Laboratory model, Flatiron's Clinical Pipe Tool and how it’s streamlining clinical trial research, initiatives aimed at improving outcomes in patients with mental illnesses and, lastly, how the Society for Social Work and Research is advancing social work research.
In this issue, the importance of teams in the success of community clinical research, Profile: Society for Clinical Research Sites, design and implementation of clinical trials workshop, summary of 40th ACCC Innovator Awards, insurance status implications on clinical trial coverage, and clinical trial navigators and how they help patients navigate the system.
In this issue, the value of cancer nursing research, this year's World Cancer Research Day call to action, The Chloe Study and its potential to impact a rare form of breast cancer, how one community oncology practice overcame barriers to research, an online community dedicated to assisting patients and providers navigate pancreatic cancer, and Trial Library, a tool that helps providers match patients with clinical trials and other patient navigation tools.
Among other articles, read reflections on ASCO 2022, a discussion of the survey addressing cancer disparities in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as update on the ASCO-ACCC Initiative addressing the lack of equity, diversity, and inclusion in cancer clinical trials.
Welcome back to the ACCC Research Review newsletter, re-launching after a hiatus since March of 2021. This newsletter highlights ACCC’s Community Oncology Research Institute’s (ACORI) advocacy for clinical research in the community. Access to clinical trials is fundamental to quality and eligibility of cancer care.
Informed consent is a critical phase of the study accrual process. Articles in this issue of the Research Review touch on possible areas for advancement, such as tailored education for staff and physicians on communication/delivery of informed consent information, including real-time sensitivity to language use, body language, and the patient’s status in the course of their disease.
2020 was a difficult year. Millions struggled with COVID-19 and its impact on personal, family, and society well-being. The Black Lives Matter movement (although not new in 2020) reminded us that systemic racism translates to perpetual health disparities and societal inequities. We experienced hurricanes, derechos, wildfires, and floods. The tension and animosity associated with the U.S. Presidential Election and its aftermath is palpable, ongoing, and profoundly polarizing.
Across the oncology ecosystem there is recognition of the importance of listening to and learning from the community’s voice whether it’s reflecting practices in care delivery or describing clinical trial barriers and challenges. In this issue, the Research Review explores how amplifying the community’s voice may help close gaps in cancer research.
With this issue, the ACCC Research Review looks at how community oncology can begin to address a significant gap in cancer research—knowledge and information on care for sexual and gender minority (SGM) patients with cancer.
This edition of the ACCC Research Review focuses on issues related to workforce training for cancer clinical research. Whether a cancer program is currently conducting clinical studies or is considering becoming a trial site, the bedrock on which all training rests is an understanding that oncology clinical research is unique in the sphere of medical practice.
As we look at how community oncology can close the gap in cancer research, a critical piece of the puzzle is improving access to trials for those living in rural areas. The challenges are many: geography, health and economic disparities, a lean (or lack of) oncology workforce in many regions, trial eligibility criteria, costs, and provider bandwidth, among others.
This issue of the Research Review features interviews with oncology providers who are succeeding in making clinical trials an option for patients in rural communities.
This issue of the ACCC Research Review provides support, perspectives, and resources for follow through on the imperative to make clinical trials more inclusive, diverse, accessible, and representative of our patient populations in communities across the country.
While this task can seem overwhelming, let us consider the fact that as oncology professionals, change drives the work we do. Improving rates of screening and early diagnosis, advancing treatments, eliminating health disparities, and reducing the burden of cancer on society—these overarching goals all demand intentional actions and sustained commitment to achieve change.
Advancing age is the biggest risk factor for cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, the median age at which cancer is diagnosed in the United States is 66 years. One-quarter of new cancer cases are diagnosed in people aged 65 to 74. An aging population is expanding this demographic trend. By the year 2030, 70 percent of all cancers are expected to occur in adults age 65 and older. Understanding how emerging cancer treatments affect older adults is critical for the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care.
Yet older adults are consistently precluded from participating in clinical trials for promising new treatments. A 2019 analysis of more than 300 oncology randomized clinical trials found trial participants to be significantly younger than patients in the general population with the same tumor types. Authors of the report published in JAMA Oncology characterize the age disparity they identified as “pervasive and worsening.” In the authors’ analysis of 262,354 participants enrolled in 302 oncology clinical trials between 1994 and 2015, the median age of participants was 6.49 years younger than the median age of other patients with the same cancers.
Clinical trials need to be more inclusive of Black and African American, Latinx, geriatric patients, and other underserved groups. Equitable representation in and access to cancer clinical trials is essential to truly closing the gap in cancer research.
ACCC has its finger on the pulse of our U.S. oncology community. Top of mind for all of us now are COVID-19, health equity, and expanding the clinical research that continues to improve oncology care for our patients. Based upon the needs and interest of our members, ACCC has selected this year’ president’s theme: Community Oncology Can Close the Gap in Cancer Research: Here’s How.