Social Media Listening in Improving Clinical Trial Recruitment in Patients With Cancer

September 14, 2019 updated by: University of Southern California

The Use of Social Media Listening for Targeted Recruitment of Twitter Users in LA County in Cancer Trials Compared to Historic Recruitment Data: A Mixed-Methods Study

This pilot clinical trial studies how well social media listening works in improving clinical trial recruitment in patients with cancer. Social media listening and recruitment on Twitter may enhance enrollment for cancer-related clinical trials.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Examine the feasibility (acceptance among University of Southern California [USC] Norris study team members and Twitter users in Los Angeles [LA] county) of targeted social media listening (SML) via Twitter as a tool for enhancing recruitment to cancer trials.

II. Gain preliminary data on the impact (i.e., numbers recruited versus projected accrual compared to historic recruitment) of targeted social media listening (SML) as a tool for enhancing recruitment to cancer trials among Twitter users in LA county.

III. Estimate the effect size of the number of people enrolled associated with the use of targeted social media listening (SML) via Twitter as a tool for enhancing recruitment to cancer trials.

OUTLINE:

Patients who mention specific cancer disease keywords and/or hashtags are identified and receive a message via Twitter. Patients are then contacted for recruitment into a clinical trial.

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • California
      • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90033
        • USC / Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • ADULT
  • OLDER_ADULT
  • CHILD

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • TRIAL INCLUSION:
  • Focus on one of the following disease categories: non-small cell lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, lymphoma
  • Be a phase 1 trial in expansion, phase 2, or 3
  • Be interventional trials
  • Recruit in English
  • Be Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved and open to accrual at USC Norris
  • Recruit for at least 9 months at the point of enrollment
  • Set monthly accrual target >= 1/ and annual accrual target >= 12
  • PATIENT INCLUSION:
  • Will include all prospective trial participants in this study that come from Twitter in response of our SM recruitment interventions, provided they meet the specific trial's eligibility criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • TRIAL EXCLUSION:
  • Phase 1 trials in dose escalation
  • PATIENT EXCLUSION:
  • Persons who do not meet the eligibility criteria of any of the trials open to accrual will be excluded from participation, and persons who may be eligible (e.g., disease/histology, stage, prior treatment) but do not meet additional trial-specific requirements such as insurance or allergy to drug)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
  • Allocation: NA
  • Interventional Model: SINGLE_GROUP
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Health Services Research (message via Twitter)
Patients who mention specific cancer disease keywords and/or hashtags are identified and receive a message via Twitter. Patients are then contacted for recruitment into a clinical trial.
Ancillary studies
Receive message via Twitter

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
User acceptance and satisfaction with social media (SM) as a recruitment method
Time Frame: Up to 14 months
A questionnaire will be used assess the acceptance of and satisfaction with SM recruitment method among University of Southern California (USC) Norris study team members and Twitter users in Los Angeles (LA) county.
Up to 14 months
Accrual rate
Time Frame: Up to 14 months
To be determined by comparing monthly actual versus (vs.) projected rate of recruitment for the trial disease groups (i.e., non-small cell lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, lymphoma) using generalized estimating equations, accounting for intra-disease random effects and trends across the 12 months (9 months exposure per trial). These results will then be put into context of the historic recruitment for these diseases at the center.
Up to 14 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Thomas Buchanan, MD, University of Southern California

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

November 8, 2017

Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED)

December 31, 2018

Study Completion (ANTICIPATED)

December 31, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 8, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 22, 2018

First Posted (ACTUAL)

January 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

September 17, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2019

Last Verified

September 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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