Leal Health Presents Poster Highlighting Disparities in Clinical Trial Participation

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Leal Health has announced that it presented a poster highlighting disparities in clinical trial participation among diverse ethnic communities at this year's American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial / Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved.

The poster, titled, "Unveiling disparities in clinical trial participation: Exploring socioeconomic barriers and access to insurance among diverse ethnic groups," was presented by Ritta Jubran, medical director at Leal Health, and highlighted data from a multi-ethnic cohort of 4,525 new patient sign-ups in 2023. The study focused on the impact of several socioeconomic factors, such as insurance coverage and patients' willingness to travel to clinical trial locations, to identify obstacles within underserved communities that contribute to patients' underrepresentation in trials.

Key findings from the study include:

• Non-white patients were more likely to be uninsured compared to white patients.
• Medicaid exhibited the highest diversity among insurance providers, representing 33 percent of the cohort.
• Leal's platform draws a diverse range of patients, with 26 percent of users identifying as non-white.
• Non-white patients showed a preference for shorter travel distances when seeking clinical trials.
  • Fifty percent of non-white patients limited their search radius for clinical trials to 50 miles, compared to 42 percent of white patients.
  • Thirteen percent of non-white patients were willing to travel more than 50 miles, while 22 percent of white patients were open to traveling longer distances.

"Our findings from this study reinforce the urgent need to tackle socioeconomic challenges that prevent greater accessibility and inclusivity in clinical trials, especially for historically underrepresented patient communities," said Tzvia Bader, CEO and co-founder, Leal Health in a press release. "Achieving true, real-world representation in clinical trials is a crucial step toward ensuring equity in healthcare. In fact, last year, FDA released guidance for the healthcare industry to enroll more participants from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations into clinical trials. The only way to deliver effective cancer treatments for all patients, regardless of their socioeconomic background or ethnicity, is to remove the barriers that contribute to underrepresentation once and for all."

Reference

Leal Health Presents Poster Highlighting Disparities in Clinical Trial Participation Among Diverse Ethnic Groups. (2023, October 10). Cision PR Newswire.