Photo Credit: Mohammed Haneefa Nizamudeen

The following is a summary of “Disparities in clinical drug trial participation in endometrial cancer: a real-world analysis,” published in the April 2025 issue of American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology by Smith et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate disparities in endometrial cancer participation in clinical drug trials within a contemporary, real-world population in the United States.  

They analyzed data from individuals with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer diagnosed between 2013 and 2021 using a real-world electronic health record-derived database covering approximately 800 academic and community practice sites across the United States. Multilevel Poisson regression modeling was applied to estimate the link between clinical drug trial participation and various factors, including sociodemographic, health system, and cancer-related characteristics.  

The results showed that among 4,423 individuals with endometrial cancer, 2,807 (63.5%) identified as White, 649 (14.7%) as Black, 78 (1.8%) as Asian, and 964 (21.8%) as some other race. Overall, 3.8% participated in a clinical drug trial. High-risk histology (risk ratio [RR] 2.28, 95% CI 1.12–4.62) and residence in the Southeast (RR 2.59, 95% CI 1.26–5.3) were linked to higher participation. Among trial participants, 123 (72.4%) were White, 18 (10.6%) were Black, 1 (0.59%) was Asian, and 28 (16.4%) were from some other race. Despite having the highest proportion of high-risk histology, Black individuals were 50.0% less likely than White individuals to enroll in a clinical trial (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.30–0.83).  

Investigators concluded that Black patients with endometrial cancer were underrepresented in clinical drug trials despite the higher rates of aggressive histologies. 

Source: ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(24)01034-2/abstract