Altruism among participants in cancer clinical trials

Background Patients’ motivations for participation in cancer clinical trials are incompletely understood. Even less is known about the factors that influence participants’ motivations for enrolling in trials.Purpose We studied the reasons why adult patients and parents of pediatric patients agree to participate in cancer trials. We focused on the role of altruism across all phases of trial.Methods We surveyed adult patients and parents of pediatric patients participating in phase I, II, or III cancer clinical trials. We asked respondents why they agreed to enroll, and examined correlates of altruistic motivation using univariate and multivariate analyses.Results Among 205 adults and 48 parents of children participating in cancer trials, 47% reported that altruistic motivations were ‘very important’ to their decisions to enroll. In multivariate analysis with phase III trial participants as the reference group, phase I trial participants least often identified altruism as a ‘very important’ motivation for e...