- Lond, Benjamin et al. (2024). A systematic review of the barriers and facilitators impacting patient enrolment in clinical trials for lung cancer. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, Volume 70. doi: 10.1016/j.ejon.2024.102564.
- Dodd, Christopher et al. (2024). Improving patient recruitment to cancer clinical trials: opportunities for cancer nurses. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2024.e1869.
Lung I-ACT: Improving Access and Recruitment to Clinical Trials for Lung Cancer Patients
Principal Investigator(s): Professor Catherine Henshall
Contact: lung-i-act@brookes.ac.uk
Project start: June 2023
Project finish: September 2025
Funded by: Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation
About us
Clinical trials are key to advancing treatments and improving patient quality of life, but only around 3-11% of cancer patients are estimated to take part in trials. Lung I-ACT aims to develop and test a research recruitment resource for lung cancer nurses to support lung cancer patients to make informed decisions about entering clinical trials.
The project is a collaboration between Oxford Brookes University and De Montfort University, funded by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Study objectives include to:
- Explore reasons for the low uptake of lung cancer patients into clinical trials, with a focus on nurses’ roles in facilitating uptake
- Develop a Lung I-ACT recruitment resource for lung cancer nurses to use to talk to and initiate discussions with patients about clinical trials opportunities
- Test whether the Lung I-ACT resource improves the number and quality of discussions nurses have with lung cancer patients about clinical trials and whether the resource is acceptable to both lung cancer nurses and lung cancer patients.
Research impact
As of March 2025, the study has identified barriers to clinical trial enrolment and developed a tool to raise awareness. The tool is made up of two parts, a poster for nurses and a leaflet for patients and is currently being piloted within seven sites across England and Scotland. The pilot is drawing to a close and the final results of the study are expected to be published in June 2025.
Should the tool rollout be successful the research team would then consider scaling up the study and running it across many more sites across the UK and potentially internationally.