According to a new JAMA Oncology study reported in Medscape, around 18 percent of English-speaking people with lung cancer Tweet about clinical trials. Social media, as it turns out, could be a clinical trial recruitment tool.
In the past, recruitment relied on physician recommendations, with more than 70 percent of patients saying they choose to enroll in trials because of physician recommendation. However, the internet presents new opportunities to share information.
The researchers identified tweets with the term “lung cancer” during a two-week period in January 2015. Here are the findings:
1. There were 15,346 unique tweets containing the term “lung cancer” and the researchers selected 1,516 to include in the analysis.
2. Eighty-three percent of the tweets included information about lung cancer, with 28.4 percent written about support. Another 28 percent focused on prevention.
3. There were 17.5 percent about clinical trials; of those tweets, 82.8 percent were about therapeutic trials.
4. Around 78 percent of the tweets about lung cancer clinical trials brought up immunotherapy and 86.3 percent included embedded links to new articles.
5. Among the links examined, only one led to a patient recruitment site.
The researchers concluded social media could be a recruitment and retention tool, but would need to ensure privacy and noncoercion.
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