By Lisa Beckendorf
Co-Chair, Cancer Research Advocates Committee

“What can we do to be more effective as advocates?” is a question that frequently arises in the Cancer Research Advocates Committee of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN). The committee has been a key component of ECOG-ACRIN’s scientific programs for over 30 years, and its members continually strive to maximize their impact and to keep patients front and center in researchers’ minds.

To that end, Cancer Research Advocates Committee Chair Mary Lou Smith and I recently conducted interviews with committee chairs in the Therapeutic Studies Program to identify new strategies and opportunities for closer collaboration. These discussions yielded five key takeaways.

1. Involve advocates early and often.
   The committee chairs recognize that advocate input is often most helpful early in clinical trial development, before the initial protocol is drafted. Early collaboration allows researchers and advocates to work together to identify patient‑relevant priorities and anticipate challenges that may affect participation or implementation. The earlier advocates are involved, the greater their ability to contribute constructively to trial design.
2. Arrange an introductory meeting between the committee chair and newly appointed advocates.
   Committee leaders recommended hosting an informal introductory meeting to welcome new advocates and connect them with their assigned committee chair. They also emphasized the value of committee chairs formally introducing new advocates to the full committee to promote awareness and engagement from the outset.

3. Increase the number of advocates on each disease-focused committee to represent cancer subtypes.
   Many ECOG-ACRIN clinical trials focus on cancer subtypes—yet a limited number of advocates are assigned to each committee (and in some cases, just one advocate). One advocate cannot possibly represent all patient experiences. Adding more advocates to each committee to represent different disease subtypes, demographic backgrounds, and lived experiences would help strengthen the patient perspective and better inform trial design and conduct.

4. Increase advocate participation in the community setting.
   Committee chairs noted that community oncology settings frequently lack adequate patient representation and recommended adding advocates to the Community Cancer Committee. This recommendation has already been put into practice, with two advocates volunteering to serve on the committee.

5. Clarify the role of advocates in supporting trial accrual.
   This topic arose multiple times, both as a perceived strength and an ongoing challenge. While the most effective approaches have yet to be fully defined, one suggested strategy was for advocates to share approved, prewritten trial information through their personal social media channels or with disease‑specific organizations they are affiliated with outside of ECOG‑ACRIN.

These insights provide a roadmap for enhancing advocate effectiveness across ECOG‑ACRIN. Next steps include working with members of the Cancer Research Advocates Committee to gather their input, explore practical ways to bring these suggestions to life, and ultimately implement these ideas. This will require ongoing dialogue, flexibility, and partnership between advocates and researchers—but the benefits are clear. Meaningful advocate involvement leads to more relevant, patient‑focused trials, ultimately advancing ECOG‑ACRIN’s mission to improve cancer outcomes through collaborative research.

The Cancer Research Advocates Committee is a standing committee within ECOG-ACRIN that brings the patient perspective and experience to the cancer clinical trials that the group designs and conducts. Committee members—all cancer survivors and caregivers—offer unique patient experiences and connections to their networks of cancer support organizations, patients, and other advocates for bi-directional communication. View the committee members and their assignments at ecog-acrin.org.