Global Breast Cancer Trials Show Progress in Diversity, But Gaps Remain

In a recent video interview Applied Clinical Trials, Gen Li, PhD, MBA, president, Phesi, highlighted results from the company’s new analysis on global inequity in breast cancer development.He discussed the geographic concentration of breast cancer trial leaders in the US and China, with a positive outlook on global diversity. Operational barriers in lower-income countries were attributed to traditional business models, with opportunities to implement a more patient-centric approach by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Li addressed the lack of local KOLs in underserved areas by emphasizing the importance of identifying local leaders. He also stressed the need to redistribute trial workloads and improve recruitment by using AI to identify and activate new sites.

ACT: Phesi’s analysis shows that nearly half of all top breast cancer trial leaders are based in the US or China. What challenges does this geographic concentration pose for global trial diversity and equity?

Li: I actually look at it rather positively. There is a more narrowed distribution before. Now you are actually seeing China, Korea, Japan, Spain—all of those countries are now actually having KOLs among those top 10s. That's positive progress, but doesn't mean we have done enough. It doesn't mean we cannot further to improve, but I think overall, we are actually going to the right direction.