Educational Video May Encourage Trial Participation

New lung cancer patients say they are more likely to join trials after watching educational video

MONDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Watching an educational video can make lung cancer patients more likely to participate in clinical trials, researchers report in the January issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.

Wei Du, Ph.D., of Wayne State University in Detroit, and colleagues followed 126 lung cancer patients (46 percent female; median age 58.7 years) scheduled for an initial visit with a medical oncologist at a multidisciplinary cancer center. Half watched an 18-minute educational video on clinical trials before their appointment while half did not. Knowledge of and attitudes toward clinical trials were assessed by questionnaire upon arrival at the clinic and two weeks later, and subsequent enrollment in trials was followed. The video, Cancer Clinical Trials: An Introduction for Patients and Their Families, was produced by the National Cancer Institute.

At baseline, 19 percent of participants in both the intervention and control groups indicated they would be "extremely likely" to participate in a future clinical trial. At two-week follow-up, 39 percent of the intervention group gave the same response, compared to 22 percent in the control group. Although subsequent trial enrollment rates were higher in the intervention group than in the control group, these differences were not statistically significant.

"Although the higher enrollment rates in the intervention arm are encouraging, larger studies are needed to further examine the effect of this video on actual clinical trial enrollment," the authors conclude.

This study was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

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