National Press Coverage Can Boost Clinical Trial Enrollment

Oncology nurses who are involved in clinical trials should consider exposure in the "popular press" as a means of increasing patient recruitment, investigators said at the 32nd Annual Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas.

"Clinical trial enrollment of cancer patients is low," said Nicole E. Bates, BA, a research coordinator for the Tumor Vaccine Group at the University of Washington in Seattle's Center for Translational Medicine in Women's Health. "In fact, only about 3% of adult cancer patients ever enroll in a clinical trial."

It is especially difficult to recruit patients at academic centers because academic research groups usually do not have budgets to fund large-scale recruitment efforts, she added.

Bates presented data showing that a brief segment about an ongoing vaccine trial for breast cancer that aired on national television produced highquality screening candidates that ultimately increased patient enrollment.

Since 2006, the University of Washington has been recruiting patients for a phase 2 HER-2/neu peptide vaccine trial for stage IIIB, IIIC, and IV breast cancer.

The 2.5-minute news story that aired nationwide included details about the vaccine's purpose and the trial's design and eligibility re quirements along with comments from the principal investigator and information on how to access the trial's web site. Most of the segment focused on the personal history and experience of one patient participating in the trial.

At the end of the segment, viewers were directed to a two-page online article about the vaccine, which provided a direct link to the Tumor Vaccine Group's website.

"As soon as the story aired, we were flooded with phone calls and hits on our website, and we felt that this response provided a good opportunity to determine whether media exposure conferred a tangible impact," Bates observed.

In the month following the broadcast, the trial investigators received 125 new clinical trial inquiries as a result of the feature, a seven-fold increase in new inquiries compared with the same month in the preceding year.

The geographic diversity of website visitors increased both within the United States and internationally.

Of the new inquiries, more than half were potentially eligible for a clinical trial based on an initial screening. Nearly one third of all clinical trial enrollments that have occurred in the 13 months since the segment aired can be attributed to the news story.

"Our results are very impressive," Bates said. "We were only able to recruit 12 women over the first 2 years of the study. And now, 1 year later, a total of 31 women have enrolled."

Importantly, she noted, it was not primarily the information that was provided by the news segment that explains the increased interest in the trial. "We believe that it's the connection with the patient because most women who contacted us said that they felt that they were just like the woman featured in the segment," she said.

Finally, Bates said that health professionals, particularly oncology nurses, can play an important role in "triaging" information from the media to patients. "Not only can oncology nurses encourage responsible reporting of medical information, but they can also serve as a trusted source of information for patients who inquire about new trials or treatments they see in the news," she noted.