Recruitment strategies in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial: The first six years

The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial ha s a total enrollment goal of almost 150,000 participants. These participant s are being recruited at ten screening centers across the United States. Al l screening centers tested recruitment methodologies during a 1-year pilot phase. The main phase of recruitment was planned to take place over a 3-yea r period. The majority of participants are being recruited during the main phase of the study. Each of the screening centers tailors recruitment to it s individual catchment area. Recruitment strategies in the PLCO trial are d escribed. As the trial began, several protocol changes were made to help to increase enrollment. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) initiated recruit ment efforts at the national level. The individual screening centers descri be some of the specific recruitment experiences encountered. As the study p rogressed, the NCI implemented special initiatives to increase the enrollme nt of minority participants. Control Clin Trials 2000; 21:356S-378S (C) Els evier Science Inc. 2000.