Language-based exclusion associations with racial and ethnic disparities in thyroid cancer clinical trials (7 October 2024)

Summary

Racial and ethnic disparities in thyroid cancer care may be reduced by improving enrolment of more diverse patient populations in clinical trials. This study in the journal Surgery looked at trial eligibility criteria and enrolment to assess barriers to equitable representation. The authors found that over the last 3 decades:

• 1 in 13 thyroid cancer–related clinical trials excluded patients based on language.
• In the fraction of published studies to report on racial and ethnic demographics, Asian/Native Hawaiian, Black and Hispanic patients were under-represented.

They concluded that improving the reporting of demographics in published studies and eliminating exclusion criteria such as language could improve equitable representation of patients in thyroid cancer clinical trials.