Invited Session 6: Strategies to Impact Diversity in Cancer Clinical Trials
Chair: Susan Tannenbaum, UConn Health
Susan Tannenbaum, board-certified Hematologist-Oncologist and Associate Professor at UConn since 2003, currently serves as the Division Chair and Fellowship Director of the UCONN Hematology-Oncology Division and Medical Director of the Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCONN. She initiated the Clinical and Translational Breast Program as the Medical Director participating as Principal Investigator in cooperative group trials. The focus now, translational research studying novel imaging and biomarkers predicting pathologic response. Current ongoing trial is with QCDxLLC utilizing a Florescent Light Sheet Microscopy characterizing circulating tumor cells in early and late-stage cancer patients. She has additionally co-authored studies of quality of life in cancer survivors with topics including cardiotoxicity, symptom distress, work-health challenges, and radiation fatigue. As a reviewer for, The Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and as a participant in the NMA/Cobb Institute, Expert Consensus Panel on Breast Cancer Disparities Elimination, addressing health care disparities is a major interest. She was a speaker and organizer addressing racial disparities in clinical trials at the Stat4Onc symposiums in 2021-2023.
The Problem of URM Representation in Cancer Clinical Trials
Speaker: Joseph M. Unger, PhD, MS, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Public Health Sciences Division; Seattle, WA
Dr. Unger is Associate Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle and a Senior Health Services Researcher and Biostatistician with the SWOG Cancer Research Group. He has extensive experience in clinical trial design, health disparities, health outcomes research, and quality of life and patient reported outcomes. He has been the lead statistician on multiple high profile randomized clinical trials examining the efficacy of interventions to control symptoms related to cancer and its treatment. Alongside his clinical trial research focus, he is a recognized leader in the area of barriers to clinical trials and disparities in access to clinical trials. He was a key contributor to the ACS Cancer Action Network’s Landscape Report on barriers to clinical trials, and led an education session at the ASCO Annual Meeting including a comprehensive exploration of the landscape of barriers to clinical trials for cancer patients. He recently published two key systematic reviews and meta analyses about trial barriers that have reoriented the focus about trial barriers away from the patient and towards the system of clinical trial conduct.
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What Gets Measured Gets Done. Performance Measurement of Pharmaceutical Companies in Equity of Drug Approval and Access
Speaker: Jennifer E. Miller, PhD,Associate Professor, Yale School of Medicine, President, Bioethics International, Director, Good Pharma Scorecard
Jennifer E. Miller, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Yale School of Medicine, President of the nonprofit Bioethics International, and Founding Director of the Good Pharma Scorecard, an index that ranks biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies on their bioethics and social responsibility performance. Dr. Miller’s current research focuses on developing accountability metrics for responsible, trustworthy, and equitable biomedical research, healthcare data sharing, access to medicines, and use of AI in medicine. Her work is supported by numerous grants, including from the FDA and NIH. Prior to joining Yale's faculty, Dr. Miller was an Assistant Professor at NYU School of Medicine and completed her training in physics, bioethics, regulatory governance and ethics at Fordham University, Regina Apostolorum, Duke University, and Harvard University.
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Improving Access and Equity in Clinical Research
Speaker: Eneida R. Nemecek, MD, MS, MBA, Nancy Jaggar Blount Endowed Professor of Pediatrics & Medical Oncology, Medical Director of Clinical Research, Knight Cancer Institute
Dr. Eneida Nemecek is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Oncology and Medical director of Clinical Research at the Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University. Native from Puerto Rico, she completed her Pediatric residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. She has a Master in Epidemiology and Clinical Research from the University of Washington and a Master in Healthcare Business Administration from OHSU. Dr. Nemecek is an established clinical researcher with over 20 years of experience in trials ranging from investigator-initiated early phase to large, multicenter studies funded by a variety of mechanisms. Her research focuses on bone marrow and cellular therapies, experimental oncology therapeutics and health services research addressing disparities in access for underrepresented groups. She has served in leadership roles in steering committees for several national cooperative research groups. She has also held elected leadership positions as director, trustee or committee chair in multiple professional organizations.
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Pharmaceutical Company Strategies to Enhance Representation of Urm in Cancer Clinical Trials
Speaker: Pierre Theodore, MD, Executive Director Health Equity, Genentech–Roche, Clinical Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine
Pierre R. Theodore, MD is the head of Patient Inclusion at Health Equity team within the Chief Diversity Office at Genentech. Health Equity strategy at Genentech includes public sector policy initiatives, ensuring adequate gender and ethnic in inclusion in clinical trials, and a range of partnerships to address health disparities. Dr. Theodore is also on the clinical faculty at Stanford University in the department of Cardiac Surgery where he remains in clinical practice.
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