title: Recruitment methods employed in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (PLCO) is a US National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate whether certain screening tests reduce mortality from prostate, lung, colorectal, and ovarian cancer. To obtain adequate statistical power, it was necessary to enroll over 150,000 healthy volunteers. Recruitment began in 1993 and ended in 2001.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our goal is to evaluate the success of recruitment methods employed by the 10 PLCO screening centers. We also provide estimates of recruitment yield and cost for our most successful strategy, direct mail.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each screening center selected its own methods of recruitment. Methods changed throughout the recruitment period as needed. For this manuscript, representatives from each screening center provided information on methods utilized and their success.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the United States between 1993 and 2001, ten screening centers enrolled 154,934 study participants. Based on participant self-report, an estimated 95% of individuals were recruited by direct mail. Overall, enrollment yield for direct mail was 1.0%. Individual center enrollment yield ranged from 0.7% to 3.8%. Cost per enrolled participant was $9.64-35.38 for direct mail, excluding personnel costs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Numeric data on recruitment processes were not kept consistently at individual screening centers. Numeric data in this manuscript are based on the experiences of 5 of the 10 centers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Direct mail, using rosters of names and addresses from profit and not-for-profit (including government) organizations, was the most successful and most often used recruitment method. Other recruitment strategies, such as community outreach and use of mass media, can be an important adjunct to direct mail in recruiting minority populations.
authors.affiliation: University of Utah, USA. lisa.gren@hsc.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gren
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Broski
authors.forename: Jeffery
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Childs
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cordes
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Engelhard
authors.forename: Betsy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gahagan
authors.forename: Eduard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gamito
authors.forename: Vivien
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Mindy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geisser
authors.forename: Darlene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Higgins
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Lois
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lamerato
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lappe
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lowery
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McGuire
authors.forename: Mollie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Miedzinski
authors.forename: Sheryl
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogden
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tenorio
authors.forename: Gavin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Watt
authors.forename: Bonita
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wohlers
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marcus
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D018579:Patient Selection; D011177:Postal Service; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D014481:United States