Clinicial trial participation in breast cancer patients
Dot M. McSherry reports
An international survey of women with metastatic breast cancer conducted to evaluate their perceptions of quality of life and what additional medical information and support was needed to help them uncovered an unexpected finding. At a time when patients with incurable cancer are needed to participate in clinical trials, the majority of these women were never advised about any breast cancer treatment clinical trials or invited to participate in them.
The Global BRIDGE Survey, sponsored by Pfizer, Inc., was conducted with more than 1,300 women living in 13 countries in five continents. Countries were selected to represent a global mix of locations, economies, and levels of cancer treatment. The countries included Belgium, France, Poland and Spain from Europe; the United Kingdom; Australia; Egypt; Canada, the United States and Mexico from North America; and Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela from South America.
The women were predominantly recruited by physicians and support group, representing approximately 100 women per country. They were polled by telephone and face-to-face interviews, although mailed questionnaires were also used in Belgium and the United States. The majority of women were over 50 years old, and most of them had a positive outlook on life.
While the availability of participating in clinical trials differs from country to country, less than one fourth of the women (308) said they were told about or ever asked to participate in a clinical trial. In total, 240 women did. More than 75%of this group said that they reason they did participate in a clinical trial was that their primary care doctor told them about it. (The survey did not ask the remaining 1.016 survey participants if they would have participated in a clinical trial if they had been aware of one.)
Clinical trial participation varied greatly by country, with Venezuela having the lowest percentage (1%) and Canada and Mexico having the highest (both 35%). In Europe and the UK, Belgian women had the highest level of participation (27%), followed by Poland (21%), Spain (19%), United Kingdom (13%), and France (7%). Women in Australia and the United States were most proactive about looking for information relating to clinical trials.
The women who participated in clinical trials had very positive attitudes about them. They said that they valued the support of their personal physician the most, followed by contact and information provided by the medical staff conducting the clinical trial.
With respect to medical information about metastatic breast cancer, half of the women throughout the world did not think that enough information was available or addressed their needs. Medical therapists ranked the lowest with respect to being a good source of information. The majority relied on written information.
Catherine Glennon, RN, of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care presented this information at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium held in Texas in December 2009. The researchers conducting the survey, which also included the organizations Advanced BC.org, CancerCare.org, and Living Beyond Breast Cancer (lbbc.org) acknowledged that the low numbers of participants in each country might have produced biased results, but still showed that medical professionals should talk more about participating in clinical trials with open enrollment to their patients.
05.03.2010
