TACOMA, Wash. — MultiCare Health System’s Institute for Research & Innovation received two grants totaling more than $1.4 million for projects aimed at increasing participation and diversity in cancer clinical trials. The awards come from the Andy Hill Cancer Research Endowment (CARE) Fund Inclusion and Diversity in Screening, Diagnosis and Cancer Clinical Trials grant.

The largest award, worth nearly $950,000, funds work designed to promote patient diversity, inclusion and access to clinical trials with the goal of increasing cancer research participation among communities of color. The second award of almost $475,000 funds a project intended to increase cervical cancer screening among sexual minority women (SMW). Work on both projects will span August 2023 to July 2025.

“We are grateful to the CARE Fund for helping us enrich our understanding of how cancer impacts historically underserved populations in our community,” says Annie Reedy, chief research and education officer at MultiCare. “This work is long overdue and will build a foundation for broader understanding across the care continuum, helping us build trust and improve care for the communities we serve, and ensuring maximum benefit when we share our learnings with health care systems around the country.”

Increasing racial/ethnic diversity and inclusion within cancer clinical trials is necessary to ensure all people benefit equitably from continued scientific advancements in cancer research. Results from the cancer research diversity project will help inform a full-scale intervention, establishing a foundation for enrolling and retaining more people of color in cancer trials. Principal investigators on the study are Deana Williams, PhD, MPH, and Chaya Pflugeisen, MSc, Med.

“Cancer disproportionately impacts communities of color, yet these groups remain strikingly underrepresented in cancer clinical trials, especially where they are at higher risk such as breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancers,” says Williams. “In the long term, this study has the potential to provide more representative clinical trial data that may lead to improvements in cancer screenings, treatments and mortality disparities among communities of color.”

The cervical cancer screening project will establish the foundation for a full-scale intervention to increase screening among SMW and improve this population’s representation in clinical trials. Long term, this study has the potential to advance reproductive justice by narrowing cervical cancer screening disparities and ensuring SMW benefit equitably from advancements in cancer treatment. Williams is also principal investigator on this study.

“Growing evidence reveals sexual minority women are at a higher risk of cervical cancer than heterosexual women yet experience vast disparities in their uptake of cervical cancer screenings,” says Williams. “Existing interventions to increase cervical cancer screening uptake have not been developed for or tailored to SMW, limiting opportunities to link these women to cervical cancer clinical trials.”

The CARE Fund is a public-private partnership that supports cancer research in Washington state encouraging additional investment by requiring private or other non-state resources to match up to $100 million in public funds over 10 years. In October 2022, the CARE Fund announced funding opportunities in four areas, including the Inclusion and Diversity in Screening, Diagnosis and Cancer Clinical Trials grant.