Recruitment strategies and enrollment for a virtually supervised exercise intervention for Hispanic/Latinx breast cancer survivors.

Abstract

10601 Background: Hispanic and/or Latinx cancer survivors remain underrepresented in clinical trials, particularly in exercise oncology and energy balance research, with less than 1% of exercise oncology trials focused on this population. The purpose of this analysis was to describe recruitment strategies and enrollment rates among Hispanic and/or Latinx breast cancer survivors screened for and enrolled in an exercise intervention. Methods: The ROSA Trial was a culturally tailored, virtually supervised exercise intervention designed to mitigate metabolic dysregulation in sedentary, overweight/obese Hispanic and/or Latinx breast cancer survivors. Trial recruitment strategies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) involved screening pre-determined electronic medical records of breast cancer patient lists for the DFCI Boston location, direct referral from the DFCI Merrimack Valley satellite which is comprised of > 70% Hispanic patient population, recruitment letter mail outs the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) cancer registry, American Cancer Society (ACS) Making Strides for Breast Cancer Boston events (2022-23), and media outlets. Descriptive statistics were used to determine frequency of recruitment strategies used and screening variables. Results: Trial recruitment occurred from September 2021-August 2024. The majority of women screened were identified at the DFCI Boston location (70%) followed by the MDPH (23%), DFCI Merrimack Valley (5%), and ACS events (2%). Out of 710 women screened, 396 were ineligible. Main reasons for ineligibility included did not identify as Hispanic/Latinx (n = 78; 19.7%), not sedentary (n = 60; 15.2%), and lived out of country/state (n = 56; 14.1%). Of the 314 women deemed eligible, 240 declined participation, with primary reasons including no communication response (i.e., never responded to voicemails or emails; n = 84; 35%), not interested (n = 46; 19.2%), and no time/scheduling issues (n = 42; 17.5%). There were 74 women who consented for the trial from the 314 deemed eligible, resulting in a 23.6% success rate. A total of 64 women were successfully randomized with 10 women unable to proceed to randomization due to no time (n = 4) or did not provide a specific reason/stopped responding to study staff (n = 6). Randomized participants were 55.47 ± 9.5 years old, overweight or obese (BMI = 30.33± 5.6), postmenopausal (71%), diagnosed primarily with stage I (37.1%) or stage II (37.1%) breast cancer. Conclusions: Multiple recruitment strategies with specific attention to consistent points of contact are necessary to recruit Hispanic and/or Latinx breast cancer survivors in the Greater Boston area. Unique situations such as residency out of the country is important to consider in the planning of future trials among said population. Clinical trial information: NCT04717050 .