Development of Strategies to Increase Enrollment in Clinical Trials for Children With Cancer

Children's Oncology Group359 enrolled

Overview

RATIONALE: Taking part in a clinical trial may help children with cancer receive more effective treatment. PURPOSE: Determine why patients who are eligible for protocols made available through the Pediatric Oncology Group do not enroll in them, and develop strategies to increase enrollment on these clinical trials.

OBJECTIVES: I. Identify prospectively physician and patient factors associated with reasons why patients who are eligible for Pediatric Oncology Group therapeutic protocols are not enrolled onto such studies. II. Provide information that may be used to develop intervention strategies to decrease barriers to patient enrollment, thus increasing enrollment in therapeutic protocols. OUTLINE: This is a case-control, multicenter study. Case patients are stratified. Stratum 1 comprises patients for whom there is an appropriate Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) frontline therapeutic protocol that has not yet been submitted to, disapproved by, or approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Stratum 2 comprises patients for whom there is an appropriate POG frontline therapeutic protocol that has been approved by the IRB. Physicians complete an IRB submission form for their patients on stratum 1. Patients/parents on stratum 2 who refused enrollment and their primary physicians complete questionnaires that address reasons for nonenrollment. Control patients/parents who consented to enrollment complete questionnaires that address reasons for enrollment. Demographic information, including the size of the treating institution and the annual number of patients enrolled onto its protocols, is collected. Additional demographic information regarding the patient and his or her family is collected. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 595 case patients (12 with soft tissue sarcoma, 34 with osteosarcoma, 19 with brain tumors, 32 with Hodgkin's disease, 60 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, 278 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 65 with acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, 56 with neuroblastoma, 14 with hepatoblastoma, and 25 with germ cell tumors) will be accrued for this study within 7 years. Corresponding control patients will be accrued for this study.

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Enrollment

359

Conditions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMax age: 21 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: Case or control patient clinically eligible for a Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) frontline therapeutic protocol, whether or not the protocol was submitted to or approved by the physician's Institutional Review Board Case patients must not have enrolled on the POG frontline protocol due to decision by the physician or patient/parent Control patients must have been enrolled on the POG frontline protocol Ineligible if offered treatment on an in-house therapeutic protocol (institutional review board-approved) rather than the POG protocol PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: Age: 21 and under Performance status: Not specified Life expectancy: Not specified Hematopoietic: Not specified Hepatic: Not specified Renal: Not specified PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: Biologic therapy: Not specified Chemotherapy: Not specified Endocrine therapy: Not specified Radiotherapy: Not specified Surgery: Not specified

Locations (31)

University of California Davis Medical Center

Sacramento, California, United States

Shands Hospital and Clinics, University of Florida

Gainesville, Florida, United States

Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami

Miami, Florida, United States

CCOP - Florida Pediatric

Tampa, Florida, United States

Emory University Hospital - Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Determine why eligible patients are not enrolled on available Pediatric Oncology Group therapeutic clinical trials.

The variables of interest are those factors that affect the decision by the treating physician or patient/parent to refuse enrollment onto study. Physician responses and patient/parent responses as to reasons for non-enrollment will be compared. Analyses will assess patient demographic factors and institutional characteristics (including the size of the treating institution in terms of the number of patients enrolled on protocols annually). Additionally, reasons for non-enrollment will be assessed with regard to the size of the institution's cancer care program.