Practicing equitable principles in cancer clinical research: Has the EU got it right?

Abstract

Clinical trials are a fundamental part of cancer research as they establish the efficacy and safety of new cancer treatments for everyone. The lack of sociodemographic diversity among cancer clinical trial participants leaves a vacuum in scientific knowledge, which can distort credible evidence from being accessible and represents a major barrier to advancing cancer care for the entire patient population. It can also cause avoidable harm to the public, undermine patients trust and result in wasteful allocation of healthcare resources. It is therefore imperative that there is representation of all population groups who may use these new cancer treatments in clinical trial settings. Europeans are disproportionately affected by cancer with cancer mortality rates being substantially affected by inequities in socioeconomic education status. General and political recognition of cancer injustices in the EU have further increased given the contemptuously unequal impacts of the legal and policy responses to it. While innovative advances in cancer research have bridged much of these critical gaps particularly in the last few decades more work needs to be done to circumvent implications of cancer health disparities. To reduce cancer health disparities, systemic and individual-level barriers to cancer clinical trial participation must be addressed through effective and ethically rigorous EU health laws and policies.