United States – According to a U.S. study, women represented only 38% of participants in clinical trials in oncology. However, oncologists need to know the real effects of medical procedures and treatment on both sexes.

In 1993, the National Institute of Health had requested that clinical trials had an adequate proportion of women among the participants. Dr. Jags and his team at the University of Michigan were interested in the eight clinical research on cancer published in major newspapers in 2006 and tried to estimate the number of participating as a private or public research.

The researchers also examined 661 clinical studies on cancer that have raised over one million participants. For each of the seven cancers not specific to one sex, the majority of studies meets a lower proportion of women compared to the number of patients with this type of cancer in the general population. These cancers affects the blood, the gastrointestinal, urinary system, lungs, nervous system, head and neck.

The study also shows that women are more present in the government-funded research than those financed by private funds (pharmaceutical) with 41.3% of participants for public search and 36.9% for private research .

The researchers want to examine that research in the near future why so few women participate in these clinical studies. Barriers such as fear, lack of information and interference with family life are discussed. For researchers, understanding why women are less represented must ensure that medical research is done for the benefit of all.