Enroll the dice.

It’s well-established that enrollment on a clinical trial for cancer treatment is associated with better outcomes. This is especially true of the cancers with the worst outcomes at baseline, such as locally-advanced or inoperable lung and esophageal cancers. Here’s an exploration of what happened regarding trial enrollment among the over 2300 patients referred for thoracic radiation at MD Anderson between 2016-2019. In the end, only 12% enrolled in clinical trials, with the most commonly-cited reason being ineligibility (58%). Once again, non-Hispanic whites with English as a first language were significantly more likely to be enrolled than their counterparts. TBL: If we truly value clinical trial enrollment, perhaps we should rethink the pragmatism of our inclusion and exclusion criteria. | Mesko, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2020