attitudes and knowledge regarding clinical trials in underserved populations receiving care at the comprehensive cancer center of wake forest university

Conditions: Malignant Neoplasm

Summary: this pilot research trial studies minority patients receiving care at the comprehensive cancer center of wake forest university (cccwfu) to see what their attitudes are regarding the healthcare they receive and how much they know about clinical trials. clinical trials are an important way to test healthcare treatments and need diverse participants to be most effective. studying what minority patients think about healthcare and clinical trials may help researchers learn more about why minorities are less likely to enroll in clinical trials and create programs to help increase their enrollment.

primary objectives: i. to describe perceived quality of care received in the cccwfu adult oncology clinics by patients belonging to one of the racial/ethnic minority and underserved populations (hispanic/latino, black/african american, rural, uninsured, or young adult). ii. to describe cancer-related health needs of racial/ethnic minority and underserved patients in the cccwfu adult oncology clinics. iii. to describe attitudes towards, and knowledge regarding, clinical trials in racial/ethnic minority and underserved patients treated in the cccwfu adult oncology clinics. secondary objectives: i. to compare levels of perceived quality of care, cancer-related health needs and attitudes towards and knowledge of clinical trials in racial/ethnic minority and underserved patients to a comparison group of non-minority/underserved patients treated in the cccwfu adult oncology clinics. ii. to describe perceived quality of care received in the cccwfu adult oncology clinics, cancer-related health needs, and attitudes towards, and knowledge regarding clinical trials by elderly patients. outline: patients complete survey items across a number of domains (patient characteristics, access to health care, perceived quality of care, clinical trial knowledge and attitudes, and cancer related health needs). patients also complete questionnaires to obtain demographics information including age, education, race and ethnicity, marital status, employment status, insurance coverage, and income, as well as health status/indicators. cancer-related characteristics, including diagnosis, stage, time since diagnosis, and treatments received are obtained self-report and patients' medical records.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * patients who have received a diagnosis of a malignant cancer * patients belonging to one of the minority/underserved populations: self-reported hispanic/latino or black/african american, rural, uninsured, or young adult (ages 18-39) at the time of diagnosis, or are a randomly sampled patient with an upcoming scheduled appointment at cccwfu that does not meet the definition of underserved for this study * patients who have a scheduled outpatient appointment physically located at a cccwfu adult oncology clinic (main medical campus) and have completed at least three outpatient medical appointments at cccwfu in the adult oncology clinics exclusion criteria: * patients who receive their cancer care in clinics outside of adult oncology at cccwfu * patients receiving care at the cccwfu adult oncology clinics for screening, diagnostic or non-cancer related reasons only * unable or unwilling to consent or complete the survey