Dr. José G. Guillem, MD, MPH, MBA

Educational Videos

for Colorectal Cancer

The study aims to recruit 60 Spanish speaking individuals who identify as Latinos, are 18 years or older and attend the Saint Thomas More (STM) Church in Chapel Hill. Study participants will be asked to attend an educational session at STM Church during which their baseline knowledge on colorectal cancer (CRC) and willingness to participate in cancer clinical trials (CCT) will be assessed through a questionnaire in Spanish. Following this, participants will watch three educational videos on CRC in Spanish. After watching the videos, CRC knowledge and willingness to participate in CCTs will be reassessed. Thirty +/- 7 days after participation in the educational session, participants will be invited back at STM Church in order to complete a follow-up questionnaire assessing CRC knowledge, willingness to participate in CCTs and perceived barriers preventing Latinos from participating in CCTs. Twenty of the 60 recruited participants will be asked to participate in a qualitative one-on-one interview aimed at identifying barriers preventing Latinos from participating in CCTs. It should be noted that cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States (US) Latino community, with CRC accounting for 10% of this overall mortality. Despite this, Latinos suffer from disparities in access to care, cancer screening, treatment, and representation in CCTs. In fact, although Latino individuals are among the largest and fastest growing communities of color in the US, currently comprising 18.7%, their representation in CCTs remains low. This is of concern because: 1) advances arising from trials with limited Latino representation may not be applicable to the Latino population, and 2) decreased Latino participation in CCTs may delay Latino access to novel therapies in a timely fashion. The investigators conducting this study believe that low cancer-specific health knowledge may be impacting Latino representation and willingness to participate in CCTs and can be addressed through culturally and linguistically appropriate community-based educational interventions. Latino CCT underrepresentation is a multifaceted phenomenon and bidirectional barriers at the physician-, healthcare system-, and patient-level are significant contributors. Therefore, understanding the multiple driving forces and barriers is essential to identifying potential targets for improvement.