Impact on mortality and cancer incidence rates of using random invitation from population registers for recruitment to trials

Impact on mortality and cancer incidence rates of using random invitation from population registers for recruitment to trials

Trials, March 2011

21362184

Matthew Burnell, Aleksandra Gentry-Maharaj, Andy Ryan, Sophia Apostolidou, Mariam Habib, Jatinderpal Kalsi, Steven Skates, Mahesh Parmar, Mourad W Seif, Nazar N Amso, Keith Godfrey, David Oram, Jonathan Herod, Karin Williamson, Howard Jenkins, Tim Mould, Robert Woolas, John Murdoch, Stephen Dobbs, Simon Leeson, Derek Cruickshank, Stuart Campbell, Lesley Fallowfield, Ian Jacobs, Usha Menon

Participants in trials evaluating preventive interventions such as screening are on average healthier than the general population. To decrease this 'healthy volunteer effect' (HVE) women were randomly invited from population registers to participate in the United Kingdom Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) and not allowed to self refer. This report assesses the extent of the HVE still prevalent in UKCTOCS and considers how certain shortfalls in mortality and incidence can be related to differences in socioeconomic status.