Abstract PS7-33: National Clinical Trial Network Breast Trial mentions in electronic physician resources
Authors: Carey Elizabeth , Curtis Amarinthia 
Published: February 2021

INTRODUCTION: Physicians look to various electronic resources to aid in management of patient treatment. While national guidelines encourage clinical trial participation for cancer patients, it is unclear if physician facing resources help guide physicians to appropriate trials in which to enroll their patients. If resources do not mention appropriate open clinical trials, physicians miss a major management strategy.

METHODS: A list of open breast cancer trials as of June 15, 2020 was obtained from the National Clinical Trial Network (NCTN). Physician facing electronic resources including UpToDate, DynaMed, WebMD, Medscape, theMedNet, WebMD, and ClinicalKey, were queried for each trial. The long name of the trial, trial name, any abbreviation associated with the trial, and definitive type of breast cancer characteristics qualifying for the trial were searched for in the database. Relevant management topics within each resource were also reviewed for mention of any open trial. A spreadsheet was constructed and trial mentions were tabulated.

RESULTS: The 17 trials were found mentioned 19 times across all 6 resources resulting in clinical trials being mentioned an average of 18%, with a range of 6%-47%. A total of 47% of open NCTN breast trials were mentioned on the MedNet, the highest rate of any platform. Trials were mentioned the least on DynaMed and ClinicalKey at a rate of 6%. Clinical trial mentions did not always correlate with recommendation of enrollment or promotion of participation in the trial. The majority of mentions were found by searching the specific trial name.

CONCLUSION: Participation in clinical trials is almost always advised for breast cancer patients. However, access to open trial information is minimal within physician-facing electronic resources. Information on open or appropriate clinical trials rarely accompanies the recommendation for research participation. With extensive probing of physician facing databases, open clinical trials were mentioned only 18% of the time (range of 6%-47%). The lack of exposure of open clinical trials in physician facing electronic databases increases the difficulty of adherence to the recommendation of clinical trial enrollment as a management strategy. In addition to missing a major management strategy, the lack of representation of the trials may be a barrier to appropriate referrals.

Mentions of Trials within Physician Facing Electronic ResourcesTrialUp to DateDynaMedWebMDMedScapeMedNetClinicalKeyEA1181NoNoNoNoNoNoNRG-BR005NoNoYesYesNoNoS1706NoNoNoNoNoNoNSABP B-51YesNoNoNoYesNoA011202NoNoNoNoYesNoEA1131NoNoNoNoYesNoS1418NoNoNoNoYesNoNRG- BR003NoNoYesNoYesNoCCTG MA.39NoNoNoNoYesNoA011401 (BWEL)NoNoNoNoYesNoA011502 (ABC)YesNoNoNoNoYesEAI142NoNoNoNoNoNoNRG- BR002NoNoYesNoYesNoEA1183 (FEATURE)NoNoNoNoNoNoNRG- BR004NoNoNoNoNoNoEAY131 (MATCH)YesNoNoYesNoNoS1609 (DART)YesYesNoNoNoNoPercent mentioned24%6%18%12%47%6%

Citation Format: Elizabeth Carey, Amarinthia Curtis. National Clinical Trial Network Breast Trial mentions in electronic physician resources [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PS7-33.