Knowledge and attitude of medical residents towards cancer clinical trials in Jordan

Background: Clinical trials are an important tool to test the efficacy of new treatment modalities for cancer patients. Physicians, including medical residents, should play a major role in carrying out clinical trials to generate a strong body of evidence to determine the best available treatment for their patients. Carrying out clinical trials demands adequate understanding of the research phases and requirements including ethical standards as well as presenting positive attitudes toward the clinical research. Hence, evaluating the knowledge and attitudes of medical residents toward running clinical trials is essential to assess their preparedness and willingness to participate in future studies. Methods: This study was a questionnaire-based observational study. It involved medical residents from various specialties who served cancer patients admitted at King Abdullah University Hospital during the period from June 1 to August 15, 2017. Results: A total number of 83 respondents completed the questionnaire. Of them, 56.7% and 53.0% of the respondents reported either current or previous participation in clinical trials research, respectively. Only 10 residents (12.0%) had previous participation in clinical research where a new investigational cancer treatment was tested. While, 91.6% of respondents believed that physicians should be involved in running clinical cancer research, only 25.3% had previous experience in writing a cancer clinical trial protocol and 28.9% wrote a scientific manuscript on cancer clinical trials for publication. Moreover, 67.5% of residents knew when informed consent should be obtained and 62.7% were aware of the clinical equipoise concept in clinical trials. Conclusion: Much remains to be done to improve knowledge and attitudes of medical residents toward cancer clinical trials and the main ethical principles that should be followed to assure having an ideal research environment, which will pave the way for the generation of high quality clinical cancer research and reliable evidence-based clinical practice for cancer management.