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Massachusetts
General Hospital Abstract: Principal
Investigator: This proposal
addresses the low accrual rates of minorities to early (Phase
I - Phase II) cancer clinical trials. We have identified low
referral rates of minority patients to the hospitals
comprising the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, a consortium
of the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Brigham and Women's
Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the
Massachusetts General Hospital, as a major barrier to
recruitment of minority patients to early phase trials.
Historically, eight percent of our 15,000 new patients each
year come from minority communities, and 6-8% of patients
entering our early clinical trials are minorities. To address
the problem of low referral rates, we propose to establish a
system for expediting referral of patients from community
medical oncology practice at the Cambridge Hospital. Dr. Lisa
Weissmann, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, is
the primary provider of care for 400 new cases of cancer each
year, as referred from the Cambridge Health Alliance, a
network of 15 community health centers in Cambridge. Her
practice serves a largely (70%) minority population, fewer
than 5 of whom are referred to academic health centers for
clinical trials. Dr. Weissmann will partner with the
Experimental Therapeutics Program of the DF/HCC to establish a
simplified, navigator based referral system to the DF/HCC,
with the object of referring 40 patients per year to our
hospitals for early drug trials. The system will contain the
following elements: (1)
A practice based navigator at Cambridge Hospital, who
will be responsible for making direct contacts with the an
Early Trials Office at the DF/HCC, (2)
A fund to provide travel and day care for patients
coming to the DF/HCC from Cambridge Hospital, (3)
An on-line protocol information system (Oncpro) to be
extended to Dr. Weissmann's office, providing up to the date
information on protocols open and eligibility requirements, (4)
Culturally relevant literature and information in
Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole/French, available in Cambridge
and at DF/HCC, (5)
An extensive program to ensure coordination of efforts
between Cambridge and the DF/HCC staffs, and training m
cultural sensitivity for DF/HCC staff, and
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