Testing Effective Methods to Recruit Sexual and Gender Minority Cancer Patients for Cancer Studies

University Of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN

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Abstract

Abstract: Recently, NCI called for research to effectively study small or rare populations relevant to cancer research. Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) are small populations at disproportionate risk for cancer and are under-researched in cancer studies. This administrative supplement application, in response to MD-22- 032, seeks funding to address an important, unforeseen challenge in research on sexual and gender minority cancer patients. The principal challenge common across SGM is to develop effective methods to identify and recruit such patients and survivors into NCI cancer studies. In Aim 1 of our parent study, we will document, in depth, SGM’s attitudes towards participating in NIH cancer research, identifying facilitators and barriers that influence willingness to participate. We will also investigate any impact discrimination and poor cancer care has on research participation. We will recruit cisgender SM men, cisgender SM women and gender minority cancer patients (n=15 per group) and compare experiences within these small populations and between SGM and a cisgender, heterosexual patient comparison group. This approach will advance our understanding of why SGM may be missing or systematically excluded from cancer studies. Recently, researchers have highlighted the limitations of collapsing gender minorities into a single category. Gender nonbinary is a fast-growing identity label that represents persons who identify with a gender different than (or not exclusively as) woman or man and who may or may not personally identify as transgender (TG). As such, nonbinary patients may have different challenges in cancer treatment than TG patients and deserve to be studied separately. Similarly, TG men and TG women are likely to have different experiences of treatment. Aggregating these gender groups into one may mask important subgroup differences. For this reason, we seek to expand our current study. Instead of collapsing gender minorities into a single group, we will recruit and interview up to 15 TG men, 15 TG women, and 15 nonbinary patients (N=45 total) on both their experience of cancer treatment and on their attitudes towards participating in NIH cancer research. Results from this formative research phase will inform how to treat gender minority data for our quantitative study in Aim 3. Impact includes the first study of gender nonbinary cancer patients ever conducted.