People from certain ethnic backgrounds are highly underrepresented in clinical trials for cancer, a disparity addressed by panelists at the 2022 Close the Gap conference, the annual virtual conference hosted by SurvivorNet in collaboration with NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. Panelist Elaine Shum, MD, a medical oncologist at Perlmutter Cancer Center, underscored the importance of testing potential new cancer treatments in a wider demographic.

“I think a lot of it does begin with access to clinical trials and education about the trials,” says Dr. Shum, also an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine “I think industry is one area that definitely can help us in terms of increasing the awareness about trials to encourage more enrollment because it is so important that we get a bigger picture of how a drug might work in not just a White population.”

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