Abstract ED01-02: Employing a community partnership approach to recruit African American men to a cancer prevention trial.

Background: Many large chemoprevention studies have not recruited significant numbers of minorities. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), a large phase III study, evaluated the impact of selenium and vitamin E on the clinical incidence of prostate cancer. Over 400 SELECT study sites in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico recruited men to this trial. The SELECT recruitment goal was 24% minorities, with 20% blacks, 3% Hispanics, and 1% Asians. The goal for blacks was set at 20% because of their proportion in the United States population and their prevalence of prostate cancer.

Methods: The minority recruitment strategies in SELECT were to: (1) consider minority recruitment during site selection, (2) expand the eligibility criteria by lowering the age criterion for black men and including men with controlled co-morbid illnesses, (3) develop a national infrastructure, (4) give additional funds to sites with the potential to increase black enrollment, and (5) provide resources to maximize free media opportunities to promote SELECT.

Results: SELECT recruitment was intended to last five years but concluded two years ahead of schedule. Of the 35,534 participants enrolled, 21% were minorities with 15% blacks, 5% Hispanics, and 1% Asians.

Conclusions: Careful planning, recruitment of large numbers of clinical centers and adequate resources accomplished by the combined efforts of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), SELECT Recruitment and Adherence Committee (RAC), SELECT Minority and Medically Underserved Subcommittee (MMUS), and the local SELECT sites resulted in attainment of the estimated sample size ahead of schedule and recruitment of the largest percentage of black participants ever randomized to a cancer prevention trial.

Citation Format: Elise D. Cook. Employing a community partnership approach to recruit African American men to a cancer prevention trial. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2012 Oct 27-30; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2012;21(10 Suppl):Abstract nr ED01-02.