The lack of African-American participation in cancer clinical trials: Mistrust of medical researcher

Six hundred thousand individuals living in the United States are expected to die of cancer each year. One out of four deaths in the United States are due to cancer. Certain racial and ethnic groups are more likely to die of cancer than other groups (Barber, Shaw, Folts, Taylor, Ryan, Hughes, Scott, & Abbott, 1998; Cross, Harris, & Recht, 1988; Freeman, Durazo-Arvizu, Keys, Johson, Schafernak, & Patel, 2004; Optenber, Thompson, Friedrichs, Wojcik, Stein, & Kramer, 1995; Powell & Meyskens, 2001). This qualitative study examines the opinions of African-American men and women with cancer and their willingness to participate in cancer clinical trials. This qualitative study attempts to understand if trust of African-Americans in medical researchers plays a role in African-Americans' willingness to participate in cancer clinical trials. The literature review of this study focuses on health behaviors, health beliefs held by African-Americans, and past unethical research. This study seeks to assess recurrent themes among the participants leading to more insight whether mistrust of medical researchers plays a role in African-American participation in cancer clinical trials. This study also explores the possibilities of higher African-American participation if there were more ethnic mirror-images in medical research.