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Engaging Older Adults in Clinical Trials
According to the FDA, most of what researchers know about the risks and benefits of cancer therapeutics derives from clinical trials conducted in younger, healthier patients (Singh, Beaver, Kim, & Pazdur, 2017), leading to systemic differences in treatment and disparities in health outcomes between older and younger patients with cancer. Additionally, with diagnostic and management strategies extrapolated from data on younger patients, delivering informed cancer care among the more aging population is quite challenging (Habr, McRoy, & Papadimitrakopoulou, 2021). Since age is the most significant risk factor for cancer (Lackman, Vickers, & Hsu, 2020), older cancer patients remain vastly underrepresented in clinical research. Thus, it is critical to identify potential barriers impacting cancer treatment studies among this population.
Previous studies indicate that trial unavailability, patient ineligibility, strict exclusion criteria such as functional status and organ function comorbidities, and treatment toxicity are primary reasons for non-accruals of older adults (Javid, et al., 2012) (Sedrak et al., 2021). Given the substantial cancer burden among the elderly, policies and initiatives surrounding the current research infrastructure may need to be modified to accommodate the needs of older patient populations.
The Journal of the National Cancer Institute released a monograph on Engaging Older Adults in Cancer Clinical Trials. Click the link below to read the articles developed through working groups formed to address the common barriers to older adult accruals and to provide innovative solutions.
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