Analysis of Cancer Patients' Understanding of Clinical Trials to help Identifying Enrolment Barriers in Clinical Trials for Stanford Cancer Centers

Author

Debjani Ghoshal, University of San FranciscoFollow

Date of Graduation

Summer 8-19-2022

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

First Advisor

Ning Yan Gu

Abstract

Clinical trials are studies conducted as a part of research to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a drug and device as a treatment option. Enrolment in a clinical trial is very critical for the success of the interventions. Therefore, it is important to improve the patient recruitment to clinical trials, specifically in oncology. There are many barriers which prevents from a successful enrolment of cancer patients in a clinical trial. And due to these barriers, there are low participations in clinical trials. There are many factors that influence the decision of the patients to participate in a clinical trial. To date, there is hardly any study designed and tested to improve recruitment of the cancer patients in clinical trials The objectives of the study is to 1) analyze the understanding of the patients regarding clinical trial which is based on a survey previously conducted, and to use the patients’ response for the analysis of this study; 2) to also review other studies that have identified the barriers to enrolment on cancer clinical trial to gather more information on how to improve patients’ enrollment in cancer clinical trial. This study has used a survey to analyze the understanding of the cancer patients’ knowledge regarding clinical trial and comparing that to the data derived from the other related research regarding the barriers to enrolment in clinical trial. There are many limitations to the study like time constraints, sample population and above all effects of COVID19 that restricted some of the data collection methods and arriving at the conclusion. It can still be concluded that this study can provide the base regarding how the patients’ understanding about the clinical trial acts as a barrier to enrolment and what are the areas of concern.

Recommended Citation

Ghoshal, Debjani, "Analysis of Cancer Patients' Understanding of Clinical Trials to help Identifying Enrolment Barriers in Clinical Trials for Stanford Cancer Centers" (2022). Master's Projects and Capstones. 1428.
https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/1428