FDA watchers and clinical trialists in oncology may want to pay close attention to the agency’s latest plans to increase representation of traditionally marginalized populations in drug development.
There’s a cultural perception in drug development that enrolling a diverse, heterogeneous patient cohort can be “risky” for detecting drug effects—a perception that needs to go away, said Lola Fashoyin-Aje, associate director of the Science & Policy Program to Address Disparities at the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence and a deputy division director in the agency’s Office of Oncologic Diseases.
Drug manufacturers and researchers have a moral obligation to design clinical trials that adequately represent the target population for the investigational agent—and these medical products need to be safe and effective for everyone, leading clinical trial experts in oncology say.
The Association of American Cancer Institutes is designing two programs to address systemic underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minority physicians and scientists in leadership positions in oncology.
The vast majority of hospitals in the United States—up to 80%—treat patient populations that are disproportionately white, U.S. News & World Report said, unveiling a new suite of health equity measures earlier this week.
When Ben Harder and his team of health analysts at U.S. News & World Report developed a suite of health equity measures for America’s hospitals, they expected to find some level of disparity, but nothing prepared them for the shocking magnitude of inequity they uncovered.
To comprehend the significance of disparities articulated in the U.S. News study and define the scorecards’ impact on bragging rights at cancer centers, The Cancer Letter asked four leaders in oncology to evaluate the health equity measures.
As a comprehensive cancer center in Los Angeles, City of Hope serves one of the most diverse—and vulnerable—patient populations in the U.S.
When Peter Pisters returned to The University of Texas System as president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in December 2017, one of his top priorities included achieving gender parity and diversifying the hospital’s executive suite.
Two academic health systems in Cleveland are creating programs and faculty positions to direct institutional initiatives on health equity—at the executive level.
