Abstract PO-034: Is clinical trials the answer to cancer: Preliminary results from City of Hope Multi-ethnic Community Engagement Program
Authors: Ashing Kimlin , Garcia Marisela , Yeung Sophia , Fernandez Alejandro 
Published: January 2022

Background: The biomedical community is struggling to develop viable strategies to increase ethnic minority enrollment in studies – a result of both historical and current medical injustices in communities of color. Therefore, we aimed to reach multiethnic community health leaders to determine barriers and facilitators of research participation by providing an educational program that focuses on the importance of ethnic minority participation in research. Methods: We conducted a stakeholder evaluation study as part of a community research engagement education program. An online survey was administered to community ambassadors (N=88) representing multiethnic health organizations from across Southern CA as well as an On-Demand “Community Research Navigator (CRN)” education program; that brought awareness of the importance of clinical trials. Participants were identified and provided the survey link by the leadership of our partners. Participants were asked to rank barriers and facilitators of research participation of their communities from least to greatest and complete the educational component. Results: Respondents were Korean-American (35%), African-American/Black (33%), Filipino-American (18%), and Latino (14%). Respondents were mostly female (88.10%) and 45-55 years old (33.33%). Participants ranked fear of biomedical research, lack of provider invitation; lack of diversity in the researchers doing the research, language, cost/coverage barriers as the top 5 barriers. The top 5 methods endorsed by participants to increase minority research participation were increase knowledge and awareness for patient and family; provide coverage/compensation; increase diversity among researchers, provider and broad media, referrals, and ensure practical facilitators. We found CRN training results showing increases in 28% of respondents feeling prepared to help their community overcome barriers to accessing medical research, 29% feeling prepared to help their community with trust and willingness to participate in medical research; and 26% feeling prepared to navigate their community into trial studies. Conclusions: Findings suggest that barriers to research participation are influenced by multiple factors including structural (health system, lack of minority scientists), societal determinants (discrimination, cost), and social (interpersonal, familial, cultural) and emotional (fear) factors. Therefore, strategies to increase minority participation in biomedical studies must attend to barrier domains. Our community Ambassadors emphasized, that the social component refers to the significant systemic barriers especially the intersection of cost and racism in the medical sector rooted in societal determinants including medical/scientific discrimination. These findings provide a broader contextual conceptualization of barriers to inform novel strategies including CRN to increase community leaders preparedness for greater diversity engagement and participation in biomedical studies as an achievable answer to cancer disparities and cancer, overall.

Citation Format: Kimlin Ashing, Marisela Garcia, Sophia Yeung, Alejandro Fernandez. Is clinical trials the answer to cancer: Preliminary results from City of Hope Multi-ethnic Community Engagement Program [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: 14th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2021 Oct 6-8. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-034.