Black men left out of late-stage clinical trials for prostate cancer

Patients recruited for Phase III and Phase IV clinical trials of prevention, screening, and treatment methods for prostate cancer are overwhelmingly white, according to new research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, analyzed data from 72 global Phase III and Phase IV trials. Of those, 59 included data on the race of study participants. The study found that white men represented more than 96% of the total population of study participants.

“We hope that this study broadly calls attention to the drastic underrepresentation of minority men in prostate cancer clinical trials, despite the increasing evidence of the racial disparities that exist in prostate cancer incidence and outcomes in these minority populations,” doctoral student and lead author Emily Rencsok said in a June 10, 2020 HealthDay article. “I think that we, as both a scientific and a clinical community, need to continue to dedicate intentional and specific resources toward the recruitment of underrepresented men into prostate cancer trials.”

Read the HealthDay article: Prostate cancer trial participants overwhelmingly white