title: A Comprehensive Program for the Enhancement of Accrual to Clinical Trials.
abstract: The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) embarked on a single institution campaign over 2 years to enhance the enrollment of cancer patients into therapeutic clinical trials. The goal of this campaign was to achieve a 40 % increase in accrual over a 2-year period.
  
  
  
  The entire process of accruing patients to clinical trials at the OSUCCC was carefully evaluated and broken down into several interlocking components. The four key areas of emphasis were as follows: (i) tasking of OSUCCC leadership with increased oversight of the entire process; (ii) education of all stakeholders [patients, their families, nurses and staff, physicians (both internal and external), Disease-Specific Committees (DSCs), and the OSUCCC leadership] as to the purpose, advantages, and availability of clinical trials, with an emphasis on accrual to cancer clinical trials (CCTs) being a critical function of all OSUCCC employees; (iii) increased oversight of the portfolio of clinical trials by DSCs; and (iv) optimization of accrual operations and infrastructure center-wide.
  
  
  
  The accrual goal was achieved a full 4 months ahead of schedule. In total, 2327 patients were accrued to therapeutic clinical trials over the course of this 2-year campaign. Prior to implementation of the accrual program, the accrual rate was consistently below 15 %. From 2009 onwards, the therapeutic accrual rate was always greater than 25 %.
  
  
  
  A campaign to educate key stakeholders in the clinical trials accrual process was successful in its goal of increasing accrual to therapeutic trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Bhuvaneswari
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ramaswamy
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beisler
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Poonam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Neki
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Single
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Association of American Cancer Institutes, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Janie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hofacker
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caligiuri
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. william.carson@osumc.edu.
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Carson
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D018579:Patient Selection; D011379:Prognosis; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*