Racial and ethnic inequities in US oncology clinical trial participation from 2017 to 2022

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance from April 2022 calls for the improvement of clinical trial enrollment of participants from historically excluded racial and ethnic populations, and key organizations have made similar calls for more diverse representation among oncology trial participants. Earlier research offered evidence of racial and ethnic inequities in clinical trial participation, but such studies analyzed enrollment data from published trials, which often lack information on participant race and ethnicity. Given evidence of worsening racial and ethnic inequities in access to health care and health outcomes, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study aimed to assess the extent of racial and ethnic inequities in oncology clinical trial participation and how they may have changed in recent years. (author introduction) #HES4A