Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2023

Demographic characteristics of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) cancer patients enrolled in early phase clinical trials in South Western Sydney (#226)

Woo Jun Park 1 , Udit Nindra 1 2 3 , Gowri Shivasabesan 1 , Sarah Childs 1 , Jun Hee Hong 4 , Robert Yoon 1 2 3 4 , Martin Hong 1 , Sana Haider 2 3 5 , Adam Cooper 1 2 3 , Aflah Roohullah 1 2 3 5 , Kate Wilkinson 1 2 3 , Wei Chua 1 2 3 , Abhijit Pal 1 6
  1. Department of Medical Oncology, Liverpool Hospital , Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research , Liverpool, NSW, Australia
  3. Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW , Australia
  4. Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead, NSW, Australia
  5. Department of Medical Oncology, Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
  6. Department of Medical Oncology, Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Bankstwon, NSW, Australia

Background/Aims: Early phase clinical trials (EPCT) represent access to novel therapeutics for patients who have exhausted standard care options. Although EPCTs play a major role in advancing cancer care, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) patients have notably lower rates of participation. Our main aim was to assess and characterise social demographics of CALD patients recruited for EPCTs at the Liverpool Cancer Centre including geography, country of birth, language spoken at home (LSAH) as well as socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA).

Methods: We conducted a 10-year retrospective audit of all patients treated on EPCTs at Liverpool Hospital between 2013- 2023. Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) scores were used from SEIFA data based on the postcode enrolled in EPCT.

Results: Our cohort contained total of 233 patients. Patients had a median age of 65 years (31 – 88) and 90 (41%) were identified as CALD. 43 (18%) patients spoke language other than English at home, and 112 (48%) were born outside Australia. Vietnamese was the most common LSAH amongst CALD (19 patients, 44%) and was the most common place of birth. The median IRSD value for our enrolled EPCT population was 941 which is marginally higher than the ISRD value for Liverpool (931). 58% (n=136) of patients resided in areas that were less socioeconomically disadvantaged than Liverpool. Additionally, there was an almost statistically trend towards lower median values of IRSD scores amongst CALD versus non-CALD patients (904 vs 975, p=0.06).

Conclusion:

There is a trend towards, greater socioeconomic disadvantage amongst the CALD patients who are enrolled in the EPCT. Our analysis provides an example of the socioeconomic and cultural landscape of patients treated at the Liverpool Hospital EPCT unit. There needs to continue to be ongoing efforts from all units to ensure limitation of inequity of access to trials unit in Australia.