The Thin End

For many years I served on NHS research ethics committees.  One aspect of clinical trials that always concerned us was how representative any trial was of the population.  This matters a great deal, as biased samples may give erroneous results or miss results that are of crucial importance   Now, new research has revealed bias and stereotyping among clinical and research professionals who recruit patients to enrol in cancer clinical trials. The findings are published online in CANCER , a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society (ACS). It is important to include diverse patients in clinical trials to ensure that the results will apply to patients in the general population. One form of bias is in the selection of those on the trail.  The proportion of racial and ethnic minorities participating in cancer clinical trials is persistently lower than the proportion of minorities in the U.S. population at large.  This has the potential for g...