Underserved head-and-neck and lung cancer patient characteristics are associated with caregiver participation in a clinical trial

Patient-caregiver relationships affect cancer outcomes, yet factors related to joint enrollment in cancer research trials are unclear. This work examined associations between cancer patients' sociodemographic and health factors and their caregivers’ trial participation. Baseline data were drawn from a parent trial testing psychosocial interventions delivered to medically underserved head-and-neck cancer (HNC) and lung cancer (LC) patients (N = 274) and caregivers (N = 210). Logistic regression evaluated whether patient characteristics were associated with participating alone versus with a caregiver(s) and type of caregiver. Many patients (65.0%) had a caregiver in the study, which was more common for married (OR = 2.05, p