Dr. Murphy on increasing diversity in cancer clinical trials

In this podcast episode, Adam B. Murphy, MD, MBA, MSCI, discusses the need to increase diversity in clinical trials, specifically focusing on studies in prostate cancer. He also highlights the recent Northwestern-led course, “Enhancing Recruitment of Ethnic Minorities in Cancer Clinical Trials,” which took place on February 16, 2024. Murphy is a prostate cancer disparities researcher and a urologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.

During the discussion, Murphy provides some advice for researchers looking to increase diversity in their trials. He also references a study in which 64% of Black patients indicated that they would be willing to discuss clinical trials in prostate cancer, compared with 82% of White patients.¹ While there is a difference, Murphy notes that the percentage of more than half of Black patients being willing to discuss clinical trials is not insignificant, and the data supports the idea of clinicians continuing to make the ask to their patients in order to help increase diversity in prostate cancer trials.

Murphy ends the discussion by sharing some of his thoughts on future work building on the Northwestern-led course, such as a session focused on mock recruitments with patients who have previously enrolled in clinical trials.

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Reference

1. Senft N, Hamel LM, Manning MA, et al. Willingness to discuss clinical trials among Black vs White men with prostate cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2020;6(11):1773-1777. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2020.3697