INTRODUCTION
cancer, deaths, prostate cancer, Cancer
CANCER, PROSTATE CANCER, CANCER
Cancer clinical trials test the safety and efficacy of promising treatments and translate new knowledge into tangible benefits for patients. However, only a small percentage of patients participate.Despite NIH and other professional society requirements to include people of color in clinical research,This problem is especially clear in prostate cancer, which is estimated to account for 27% of all cancer diagnoses and 11% of deaths in men in 2022.While enrollment barriers are complex and multilevel,The objective of the prospective observational study was to describe the proportion and socio‐demographic characteristics of patient participants who preliminarily met eligibility criteria for an available prostate cancer therapeutic clinical trial during the study period. We expected that sociodemographic characteristics, such as self‐identified race, age, income, and education, as well as self‐reported health status would be associated with likelihood of potential eligibility.The prospective interventional study focused on patient–physician clinical communication among the subset of patients identified as potentially eligible for an available trial. The objective was to examine whether a patient‐level communication intervention improved communication quality and rates of invitations to participate in an available prostate cancer therapeutic clinical trial. We expected that patients who received the intervention, compared to patients in the usual care group, would experience better communication quality and be more likely to receive an invitation. We further expected that intervention effects would be greater for Black than for White participants, given documented disparities in communication quality during interactions with Black and with White patients.