Disp-13. enhancing hispanic participation in brain tumor trials

BACKGROUND Hispanics represent 18.9% of the U.S. population, 26.8% of Florida population, and is the fastest growing ethnicity in the country. Hispanic representation in clinical trials remains extremely low at less than 3%. Increasing the Hispanic participation rate in clinical trials has been a priority for the University of Miami (UM), who has implemented various initiatives to improve diversity and inclusion of underrepresented ethnic minorities (URM) within our clinical trials, especially brain tumor trials. Efforts such as community outreach raising awareness of clinical trials, translation of informed consents to Spanish, use of bilingual staff trained in cultural communication diversity and inclusion, dedicated social workers and community seminars have played a crucial role at enhancing Hispanic participation within our brain tumor studies. Method Retrospective review using UM’s clinical trial registry to analyze demographics of brain tumor patients consented to therapeutic/non-therapeutic trials between May 2017 to May 2023. RESULTS A total of 431 patients were consented of which 313 (72.4%) actively participated in therapeutic/non-therapeutic trials and 118 (25.1%) screened-failed. Of the accrued participants, 283 (90.42%) self-identified as White, 16 (5.11%) Black/African American, 5 (1.60%) more than one race, 4 (1.28%) Asian, 4 (1.28%) unknown/unreported and 1 (0.32%) American Indian/Alaskan Native. For ethnicity, 160 (51.12%) self-identified as Hispanic/Latino, 148 (47.28%) as non-Hispanic, and 5 (1.60%) were unknown/unreported. 143 (45.69%) were females and 170 (54.31%) were males. For age, 43 (13.73%) were 18-39, 191 (61.02%) 40-64 and 79 (25.24%) were 65 and over. CONCLUSION There is extensive evidence that patients from URM’s groups may not be afforded the same opportunity to participate in clinical trials and thus benefit from advanced therapies offered via them. Efforts to ensure meaningful representations of Hispanics in our brain tumor trials have led to a high accrual rate of Hispanics above national norms to better represent our community's demographics.