title: Barriers and challenges to global clinical cancer research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are concerns about growing barriers to cancer research. We explored the characteristics of and barriers to global clinical cancer research.
  
  
  METHODS
  The American Society of Clinical Oncology International Affairs Committee invited 300 selected oncologists with research experience from 25 countries to complete a Web-based survey. Fisher's exact test was used to compare answers between participants from high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Barriers to clinical cancer research were ranked from 1 (most important) to 8 (least important). Mann-Whitney's nonparametric test was used to compare the ranks describing the importance of investigated obstacles.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty oncologists responded, 41 from HICs and 39 from LMICs. Most responders were medical oncologists (62%) at academic hospitals (90%). Researchers from HICs were more involved with academic and industry-driven research than were researchers from LMICs. Significantly higher proportions of those who considered their ability to conduct academic research and industry-driven research over the past 5 years more difficult were from HICs (73% vs. 27% and 70% vs. 30%, respectively). Concerning academic clinical cancer research, a lack of funding was ranked the most important (score: 3.16) barrier, without significant differences observed between HICs and LMICs. Lack of time or competing priorities and procedures from competent authorities were the second most important barriers to conducting academic clinical research in HICs and LMICs, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Lack of funding, lack of time and competing priorities, and procedures from competent authorities might be the main global barriers to academic clinical cancer research.
authors: Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Faculty of Computer and Information Science, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Latin American-Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Hospital de Clínicas, University of Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay; Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India; Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; Division of Medical Oncology/Hematology, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, Japan; Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel; Institute of Advances in Medicine and University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; American Society of Clinical Oncology, Alexandria, Virginia, USA; University Clinic Golnik, Golnik, Slovenia.
authors: Bostjan
authors: B
authors: Seruga
authors: Aleksander
authors: A
authors: Sadikov
authors: Eduardo L
authors: EL
authors: Cazap
authors: Lucia Beatriz
authors: LB
authors: Delgado
authors: Raghunadharao
authors: R
authors: Digumarti
authors: Natasha B
authors: NB
authors: Leighl
authors: Mohamed M
authors: MM
authors: Meshref
authors: Hironobu
authors: H
authors: Minami
authors: Eliezer
authors: E
authors: Robinson
authors: Nise Hitomi
authors: NH
authors: Yamaguchi
authors: Doug
authors: D
authors: Pyle
authors: Tanja
authors: T
authors: Cufer
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003625:Data Collection; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: Barrier; Cancer research; Global