Attitudes Toward Cancer Clinical Trial Participation in Young Adults with a History of Cancer and a Healthy College Student Sample: A Preliminary Investigation

Timothy J Grigsby; Erin E Kent; Michael J Montoya; Leonard S Sender; Rebecca A Morris; Argyrios Ziogas; Hoda Anton-Culver

doi:10.1089/jayao.2013.0030

Attitudes Toward Cancer Clinical Trial Participation in Young Adults with a History of Cancer and a Healthy College Student Sample: A Preliminary Investigation

J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2014 Mar 1;3(1):20-27. doi: 10.1089/jayao.2013.0030.

Authors

Timothy J Grigsby¹, Erin E Kent², Michael J Montoya³, Leonard S Sender⁴, Rebecca A Morris⁵, Argyrios Ziogas⁶, Hoda Anton-Culver⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California , Los Angeles, California.
² Outcomes Research Branch, Applied Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Science, National Cancer Institute , Bethesda, Maryland.
³ Department of Anthropology, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Department of Public Health, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Hyundai Cancer Institute , CHOC Children's Hospital, Orange, California.
⁵ Hyundai Cancer Institute , CHOC Children's Hospital, Orange, California.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Genetic Epidemiology Research Institute, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California.
⁷ Department of Epidemiology, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California. ; Genetic Epidemiology Research Institute, University of California , Irvine, Irvine, California.

Abstract

Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) aged 15-39 at diagnosis have very low cancer clinical trial accrual rates. To date, no studies have examined attitudes toward clinical trial participation in this age range to determine if certain individuals are less likely to enroll if offered participation. The current study assessed attitudes toward participation using the Cancer Treatment Subscale of the Attitudes toward Cancer Trials Scales. Methods: Data were collected from a sample of leukemia and lymphoma survivors (n=99) and a healthy college student sample (n=397). Following a principal components analysis, two subscales-Personal Barriers/Safety and Personal Benefits-were retained for analysis. Results: In the cancer survivor group, only 14 (13.3%) reported being offered participation in a cancer clinical trial, and only 8 of those 14 (7.6% of survivors) participated. Responses from leukemia and lymphoma survivors revealed no significant relationships between age, gender, race/ethnicity, clinical trial participation, insurance status, or social class with Personal Benefits or Personal Barriers/Safety. Healthy college females had more negative Personal Barriers/Safety attitudes compared to males after adjusting for race/ethnicity and social class (p=0.01), but no associations were present when examining Personal Benefits as an outcome. Conclusion: This preliminary investigation suggests that drivers of attitudes toward clinical trial participation in AYAs are not well understood and may impact cancer trial participation. Future work should focus on defining attitudes toward cancer clinical trials in the AYA population and developing interventions to increase awareness, knowledge, and positive attitudes toward participating in cancer research.

Keywords: attitudes; beliefs; clinical trials; recruitment.