Unmasking Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities in United States Chordoma Clinical Trials: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND

Chordoma is a rare bone cancer with limited treatment options. Clinical trials are crucial for developing effective therapies, but their success depends on including diverse patient populations. The objective of this study was to systematically evaluate the reporting of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in United States clinical trials exploring treatment for chordoma.

METHODS

A literature search was conducted through PubMed/Medline, Cochrane, Epistemonikos, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases for published US chordoma trials up until 19 August 2024. The data collected included trial characteristics and racial and ethnic data, as well as socioeconomic indicators when available. Methodological Index for Non-Randomized Studies (MINORS) and Revised Cochrane Risk-of-Bias Tool for Randomized Trials (RoB2) analyses were adopted to assess the methodological quality. The N-1 Chi-squared (χ) test was implemented to compare the reported racial and ethnic data with the most recent US Census Bureau data.

RESULTS

Five trials involving 111 patients (median age: 63 years; 34% female) were included. Four studies (80%) were single-arm non-randomized studies with one study (25%) having a high methodological quality and three (75%) having a moderate quality based on the MINORS analysis. Most patients (91%, = 82) were White/Caucasian, representing a proportion which was significantly higher than the reported 75% in the US population ( = 0.0005). Black/African American patients (2%, = 2) were significantly underrepresented compared to the 14% in the US population ( = 0.0015). Regarding ethnicity, Hispanic/Latino patients (7%, = 6) were significantly underrepresented compared to the 20% in the US population ( = 0.0021). No measures of socioeconomic status were reported.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review highlighted the need for improved racial and ethnic diversity in chordoma trials and the better reporting of socioeconomic data. The underrepresentation of minority groups may obscure potential disparities in disease incidence, treatment access, and clinical outcomes.