Role of the Cancer Information Service in a national education initiative on cancer clinical trials.

Although the participation of cancer patients in clinical trials is critical to the identification of new treatment protocols that improve survival or reduce treatment side effects, usually fewer than 3% of all newly diagnosed patients are enrolled in clinical trials. The ability to recruit more of these patients to clinical trials would increase the number of studies that could be done and would move promising new treatments more quickly into routine practice. This paper examines the role that the Cancer Information Service (CIS) played in the nationwide education initiative sponsored by the National Cancer Institute to increase accrual to clinical trials. Efforts to increase patient and public awareness of clinical trials as a treatment option are described, and the unique role of the CIS in response to the education initiative is highlighted. The effect of the initiative on accrual is discussed, and recommendations for additional studies are provided.