UK researchers receive NCI grant to improve clinical trial conversations
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 27, 2026) — University of Kentucky researchers have received a three-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to help develop new ways for patients, caregivers and providers to communicate about clinical trial participation.
The $845,461 grant will support a project co-led by Aurora Occa, Ph.D, an associate professor in UK’s College of Communication and Information, and Jerod Stapleton, Ph.D., a professor in the UK College of Public Health. Both are members of the UK Markey Cancer Center.
Clinical trials can give patients access to potential new treatments and help advance cancer care, however, fewer than one in 10 U.S. cancer patients enroll in a trial. Deciding whether to participate can be complicated. Patients and their families may have to navigate unfamiliar medical information, uncertainty and differing views from providers, family and online sources.
The researchers will work with patients, healthcare providers and caregivers to develop a patient-focused eHealth intervention, an innovative game-based patient educational activity which will be tested in a pilot study.
“Many patients first hear about trials when they are invited to join, which may be challenging if they do not feel prepared to make an informed decision or do not understand the implications of joining a research study,” Occa said.
The proposed intervention takes a different approach by using an interactive storytelling strategy to help people understand and talk about clinical trial participation. The goal is to prepare patients to have meaningful conversations and make informed decisions if offered the opportunity to join a clinical trial in the future.
The team will also use medical records and patient surveys to learn how often patients are offered clinical trials and how many choose to join.
“As we developed this study, we realized there has been little research attention to how the complex clinical trial invitation process unfolds,” Stapleton said. “We are excited to use this funding to identify opportunities to better support our clinic teams and our patients.”
This project will also help researchers better understand how clinical trial invitations and enrollment change over time.
The project is funded through an NIH R34 grant, a planning grant that supports the work needed before a larger clinical trial. The project’s research collaborators at UK also include Ming-Yuan Chi (College of Health Sciences), Anne Ray (College of Public Health) and Micheal Cavnar (College of Medicine). The results will guide a future trial testing whether the game improves clinical trial enrollment.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R34CA313778. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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