Abstract PO3-09-07: When We Tri(al): Reaching, Motivating, & Effectively Engaging Black Women In Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Research
Authors: Fairley Ricki , Powers Emily , Brown Hayley 
Published: May 2024

According to the American Cancer Society, Black women in the United States are 41% more likely to die from breast cancer than non-Hispanic white women. A systematic review of participation in clinical trials found that Black patients comprised less than 4% of all patients enrolled in clinical trials for emerging immune-based cancer treatments. The physiology of Black women has not been a significant consideration in clinical trial research. Clinical trial education, recruiting, and participation are not commensurate with the burden of disease.

TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance (TOUCHBBCA) launched the When We Tri(al) Movement (WWT) in January 2022 with robust multi-media support and nationwide community event activations to educate and empower Black women with culturally-agile messaging from the trusted voices of Black Breast Cancer survivor/thrivers. WWT provides an innovative and engaging learning platform that clearly depicts how clinical trials work, explains standard of care, dispels historical myths, establishes trust, and empowers self-advocacy. To date, whenwetrial.org has garnered over 108,000 visits and sent nearly 11,000 Black women to clinical trial portals. One-third of unique website visitors have gone into clinical trial search portals.

Over a sixteen day period in late June and early July of 2023, TOUCHBBCA conducted research among Black women who joined the When We Tri(al) movement using a pre-experimental, retrospective pre-then-post test (RPTP) survey design to assess growth in knowledge and behavior change among Black women exposed to the Movement. This survey received 113 respondents who self-identified as Black and assigned female at birth. Following exposure to WWT, 34.5% of respondents reported an increase in their understanding of how breast cancer clinical trials work, 31.9% reported an increase in their understanding of standard of care in breast cancer clinical trials, and 40.7% reported an increased understanding of why clinical trials are important for Black women. 32.7% of survey respondents were more likely to consider participating in a clinical trial after interacting with the WWT movement. After interacting with the movement, 31% of respondents took active steps to participate in a clinical trial—specified as searching for clinical trials in a portal, asking about clinical trial options, talking to a doctor about clinical trials, etc. Another 17.7% of respondents reported supporting a loved one in taking steps to participate in a clinical trial only after interacting with WWT.

The majority of respondents reported first hearing about WWT through social media (59.2%), followed by “Other” (the majority of write-in responses named Google or a friend) (19.5%). Respondents reported that the most convincing WWT messages were delivered via social media (26.6%) and in-person conversations (20.4%).

Not only is When We Tri(al) educating and equipping Black women with critical clinical trial knowledge, but the movement is driving significant behavior change by Black women around clinical trial participation.

Citation Format: Ricki Fairley, Emily Powers, Hayley Brown. When We Tri(al): Reaching, Motivating, & Effectively Engaging Black Women In Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO3-09-07.