Industry Panel: SurvivorNet’s 2022 Close The Gap Conference On Racial Disparities In Cancer Care

“I think we need to start with the bigger picture of: what is the goal? What are the goals of clinical trials and then what are we doing in order to make sure everyone gets access?” Dr. Small asked. “Part of the research and development is to make sure that every patient equally benefits from scientific advancement… to impact and improve their lives. That has to start with ensuring that the participants on our clinical trial actually represent the disease.”

Statistics from clinical trials show that certain demographics can be heavily underrepresented in these trials, which are the front lines in treatment for advanced cancers.

Pfizer’s Oncology Marketing Director for Patient Solutions, Richard Fahrer, spoke about trying to separately target recruits for these trials from different ethnic backgrounds. Considering every ethnicity and “developing content with them in mind, as opposed to just creating one size fits all… shotgun blasting that approach across the stratosphere, and hoping it works for everybody. ‘Cause we know that’s not the case,” Fahrer said.

More so than anything, panelists agreed that a central focus on closing the gap when it comes to cancer should be about accessibility. NYU Langone’s Dr. Elaine Shum says that, “I think a lot of it does begin with access to clinical trials and education about the trials… I think industry is one area that definitely can help us in terms of increasing the awareness about trials to encourage more enrollment, because it is so important that we get a bigger picture of how a drug might work in not just a white population.”

Karima Sharif, who heads inclusive investments and partnerships at Publicis Health Media, echoed doctors’ messages on awareness, but from an marketing standpoint: “From a media perspective, we’re thinking about the distribution. If we know that we want to activate within the communities, then we’re working with our clients.”

Above all, the industry panel agreed that the main focus is access and practical thinking. Making things more accessible and considering a wider scope of patients in trials. access and awareness is immediately limited when groups of people are excluded from test runs.

Watch the full conference here.

 

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