Racial and Ethnic Disparities Among Participants in Precision Oncology Clinical Studies

Key Points Question What is the representation of racial and ethnic minority populations in studies incorporating precision oncology objectives in the US? Findings This cross-sectional analysis evaluates breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer studies in the Clinicaltrials.gov registry with precision medicine objectives and reporting race and ethnicity—a total of 93 studies with 5867 total enrollees. An underrepresentation of minority racial groups and an overrepresentation of non-Hispanic White participants relative to their incidence in the US cancer population was found in precision oncology studies. Meaning These findings demonstrate an urgent need to increase enrollment of participants from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds onto precision oncology studies, so that meaningful precision data can be collected and stratified to traditionally underrepresented participants.