TY - JOUR
T1 - Responding to a significant recruitment challenge within three nationwide psychoeducational trials for cancer patients
AU - Stanton, Annette L.
AU - Morra, Marion E.
AU - Diefenbach, Michael A.
AU - Miller, Suzanne M.
AU - Slevin Perocchia, Rosemarie
AU - Raich, Peter C.
AU - Fleisher, Linda
AU - Wen, Kuang Yi
AU - Tran, Zung Vu
AU - Mohamed, Nihal E.
AU - George, Roshini
AU - Bright, Mary Anne
AU - Marcus, Alfred C.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding This research was supported by grant 5P01CA057586 from the NCI of the National Institutes of Health.
Funding Information:
10. American Cancer Society (ACS) (May 2010–April 2011, projects 1 and 2) 11. National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) (November 2010–April 2011, projects 1 and 2) e-newsletter advertising. E-newsletter advertisements were sent to more than 70,000 individuals. Virtually, all of these outreach efforts occurred after the CISRC recruitment call center was established The Love/AVON AOW was launched in 2008 by the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation thanks to funding from the Avon Foundation for Women [30]. Participation is open to any adult (19+years of age) who is interested in participating in breast cancer research, including those with and without a history of breast cancer. Participants are recruited from a variety of sources, including scientific conferences, social media, private and public meetings and speaking events, partnerships with other organizations and other grassroots efforts, as well as by other media opportunities. Studies approved by AOW must be funded and IRB approved. Once approved, one or more “call-to-action” e-mails that target a specific research project are sent to all AOW members, which currently include over 365,000 individuals. In addition, studies might also be mentioned in general AOW e-mails, which reminded potential participants about several studies recruiting through the AOW. All recruitment e-mails encourage participants to pass them along to others. For project 2, call-to-action e-mails were sent on 7 April 2010, 4 August 2010, 17 November 2010, and 2 March 2011, with general e-mails sent on 21 June 2010, 21 October 2010, and 28 February 2011. For project 3, call-to-action e-mails were sent on 16 September 2009 and 20 January 2010, with general e-mails sent on 16 April 2010, 7 May 2010, 19 July 2010, 21 October 10, and 29 January 2011 Monthly press releases were distributed on PR news wire for dissemination by news agencies and other sites Research investigators participated in 18 radio and TV interviews for project 1 recruitment involving a wide range of media markets from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Alaska To augment the general CISRC website (see No. 2) when the CIS accrual collaborations ended, three project-specific websites were created for use in conjunction with other advertising and marketing efforts. Unique phone numbers were created for each website to track enrollment. A custom video was created for each website to explain the study and to urge users to call the CISRC call center The ACS accrual partnership specifically targeted projects 1 and 2. All callers to the ACS National Cancer Information Center (NCIC) were initially assessed for potential eligibility during their standard service call. If potentially eligible and they expressed interest in participating in either project, they were triaged to a specialized group of Information Specialists who explained the study in more detail, and if they remained interested, were then either transferred directly to the CISRC call center, or given the call center number as a referral. In addition, during this same time period, ACS included the CISRC recruitment flyers (see No. 3) when mailing ACS materials to potentially eligible participants who called the NCIC. Although this partnership with ACS did not specifically target project 3, several ACS referrals for project 2 were subsequently determined to be eligible for project 3 NBCI, consisting of a network of 34,000 member churches divided into five geographic areas across the USA, has collaborated in previous health-related programs on the national, state, and local level [31]. NBCI launched a 6-month e-mail campaign to all member churches to promote projects 1 and 2 and to encourage sharing of this information with congregants. In addition, press conferences highlighting this collaboration were held in New York and Philadelphia, two metropolitan areas with large African American populations. These efforts were further supported by frequent study announcements on the NBCI website and church bulletins as well as a more intensive prostate cancer “Awareness” campaign in three selected churches
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - Purpose: When faced with a significant recruitment challenge for three nationwide psychoeducational trials targeting prostate and breast cancer patients, the Cancer Information Service Research Consortium initiated outreach efforts to increase accrual. Recruitment is reported by major outreach strategy to inform the use of similar campaigns, either as primary recruitment efforts or to supplement "in-reach" recruitment within oncology settings. Methods: During a 33-month period, recruitment was tracked from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS), the American Cancer Society (ACS), Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation's Love/Avon Army of Women (AOW), Internet advertising, press releases, radio/television interviews, recruitment materials in community venues, and outreach to churches and cancer support organizations. Results: Across projects, the majority (89 %) of recruited participants (N = 2,134) was obtained from the CIS (n = 901, 19 months of recruitment), AOW (n = 869, 18 months), and ACS (n = 123, 12 months). Other efforts showed minimal gain in recruitment. Conclusions: Cancer information programs (e.g., CIS and ACS) and registries of individuals willing to participate in cancer-related research (e.g., AOW) can represent exceptional resources for outreach recruitment of cancer patients, especially when the eligibility criteria are highly restrictive. However, these resources do not yield samples representative of the larger population of adults diagnosed with cancer, and conclusions from such trials must be tempered accordingly. Implications for cancer survivors: Inadequate recruitment to randomized controlled trials limits the creation of useful interventions for cancer survivors. By enrolling in cancer registries and taking part in research, cancer survivors can contribute to the development of effective resources for the survivor population.
AB - Purpose: When faced with a significant recruitment challenge for three nationwide psychoeducational trials targeting prostate and breast cancer patients, the Cancer Information Service Research Consortium initiated outreach efforts to increase accrual. Recruitment is reported by major outreach strategy to inform the use of similar campaigns, either as primary recruitment efforts or to supplement "in-reach" recruitment within oncology settings. Methods: During a 33-month period, recruitment was tracked from the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS), the American Cancer Society (ACS), Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation's Love/Avon Army of Women (AOW), Internet advertising, press releases, radio/television interviews, recruitment materials in community venues, and outreach to churches and cancer support organizations. Results: Across projects, the majority (89 %) of recruited participants (N = 2,134) was obtained from the CIS (n = 901, 19 months of recruitment), AOW (n = 869, 18 months), and ACS (n = 123, 12 months). Other efforts showed minimal gain in recruitment. Conclusions: Cancer information programs (e.g., CIS and ACS) and registries of individuals willing to participate in cancer-related research (e.g., AOW) can represent exceptional resources for outreach recruitment of cancer patients, especially when the eligibility criteria are highly restrictive. However, these resources do not yield samples representative of the larger population of adults diagnosed with cancer, and conclusions from such trials must be tempered accordingly. Implications for cancer survivors: Inadequate recruitment to randomized controlled trials limits the creation of useful interventions for cancer survivors. By enrolling in cancer registries and taking part in research, cancer survivors can contribute to the development of effective resources for the survivor population.
KW - Accrual
KW - Cancer
KW - Psychoeducational
KW - Randomized controlled trial
KW - Recruitment
KW - Survivorship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84881258853&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11764-013-0282-x
DO - 10.1007/s11764-013-0282-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 23595235
AN - SCOPUS:84881258853
SN - 1932-2259
VL - 7
SP - 392
EP - 403
JO - Journal of Cancer Survivorship
JF - Journal of Cancer Survivorship
IS - 3
ER -