Abstract B016: Addressing cancer clinical trials lack of enrollment among African Americans and African Nationals

Background: African Americans (AA) populations are among the most impacted by different types of cancers in the U.S. compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Among them, cancer clinical trials enrollment rates continue to be disproportionally low. Whites/Caucasian individuals comprise about 67% of the US population although having a 75% enrollment rate in clinical trials. Black/AA individuals comprise 13.4% of the US population although having a clinical trial enrollment rate of less than 5%. Participation of African Americans and African Nationals (AN) will significantly increase the state of knowledge regarding cancer treatment, survival, behavioral and pharmaceutical therapeutics, precision medicine, and increase access to the newest cancer therapies and can help improve cancer outcomes. Therefore, improving clinical trial participation among AA/AN patients is fundamental to reduce cancer health disparities. However more culturally focused information is needed addressing barrriers to clinical trials participation in these groups. Methods: We conducted 6 focus groups with 42 participants and two Town hall meetings with 120 participants targeted to AA/AN communities, where we gathered information about barriers to participation in research and clinical trials. We also reached out to 48 Black churches to discuss partnerships for dissemination and listen to concerns regarding AA participation in research. We leveraged our experience at USC NCCC where we have seen an increase of 147% in AA participation in clinical trials since 2015. Utilizing lessons learned and strategies identified we developed an AA/AN Clinical Trials Toolkit for CT outreach to inform about CT enrollment in Los Angeles County. The manual was culturally adapted to convey messages on clinical trials, using infographics and educational videos by cancer researchers, guided by persons living with cancer and other key stakeholders. Results: More than 160 stakeholders provided information in the creation of the AA/AN manual to include pastors, and other additional stakeholders. The manual was culturally adapted to convey lay messages on clinical trials addressing barriers to participation, using infographics and educational videos by cancer researchers. We found that partnering with pastors in the faith-based community was one of the most trusted ways of approaching this topic in the AA/AN community. Once the AA/AN manual was developed, stakeholders were asked to contribute to community wide di