On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, PHEN held a hybrid Managing Survivorship Meeting and Webinar at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute called Expanding Access to Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials: Introducing the Enhanced “Find Your Trial” (FYT) Tool. PHEN Director of Clinical Trials and Patient Education Dr. Keith Crawford spoke about the improved Find Your Trial (FYT) search tool, showing patients and survivors how to find prostate cancer clinical trials they may be eligible for.
Dr. Crawford emphasized how clinical trials can be an imperative aspect of prostate cancer treatments, and those with Stage 4 prostate cancer will need to seriously consider participating in a trial to overcome their disease. Additionally, clinical trials are safe options since they follow established guidelines and peer-reviewed papers while offering cutting-edge treatments that may boost outcomes and survival rates.
While the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recommends Black men to represent at least 22% of all clinical trial participants, the data shows that African American men are enrolling in only 3-4% of all prostate cancer clinical trials, said Dr. Crawford. To improve diversity, reduce disparities in outcomes, and ensure all men get the same benefits from clinical research, prioritizing a way for Black men to enroll in advanced prostate cancer studies is essential.
The FYT tool can simplify the process of finding a clinical trial, as it only requires patients or caregivers to enter in a specific diagnosis and the state they live in before clicking search. The benefits of this tool are that it navigates patients to actively enrolling trials relevant to their needs and it avoids the complexity of medical jargon present on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Dr. Crawford explained how patients can visit PHENTrials.com, open the “Find Your Trial” search bar, enter their prostate cancer diagnosis and state, and review the available trials. They can then print off the information and speak to their healthcare providers about their options. After his presentation, Dr. Crawford answered audience questions, explaining how trial researchers will navigate patients through a study and defining the different phases of clinical trials and informed consent.
Webinar attendees also completed survey questions at the end of the presentation. The results show that 86% of survey takers were very satisfied with the webinar introducing the FYT tool. Additionally, 70% of respondents are very confident about discussing clinical trial options with their doctors after attending this webinar while 96% would recommend this webinar and the FYT tool to other men interested in trials. Lastly, 88% stated having a better understanding of why clinical trial participation is advantageous.