ACORI Call to Action Summit Activating Equity in Community Oncology Research-Day One: Fostering Readiness for Community Cancer Research

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Video Summary

The panel, moderated by Nadine Barrett, focused on how community cancer centers can become ready for community-engaged cancer research and clinical trials. Speakers emphasized that many community sites serve underserved populations but lack the infrastructure, staffing, time, data systems, and funding needed to support research. They distinguished between “readiness” and “capacity”: readiness means understanding a site’s interests, priorities, and workflow, while capacity includes the resources and systems needed to actually conduct research.<br /><br />Panelists stressed that successful partnerships must be built with community input, leadership buy-in, and long-term trust. They highlighted the importance of making research fit into existing clinical workflows, especially in FQHCs and safety-net settings where patient care remains the top priority. Funding for coordinators, IT support, transportation, navigation, and staff time was identified as essential.<br /><br />The discussion also underscored the need to expand the types of studies offered in community settings, including prevention and behavioral trials, not just early-phase drug trials. Another major theme was data: centers need better ways to capture and use patient demographic and outcome data to identify needs, measure disparities, and build partnerships. Overall, the panel called for more equitable, resource-backed collaborations to bring research closer to the communities most affected by cancer.

Keywords

community cancer centers

community-engaged research

clinical trials

underserved populations

research readiness

capacity building

health equity