{"entity":{"id":"joseph-unger","kind":"person","name":"Joseph M. Unger","aka":[],"tldr":"Biostatistician who showed most patients are excluded from trials by structural barriers, not by unwillingness to take part.","summary":"Joseph Unger led the systematic review and meta-analysis showing that more than half of cancer patients cannot enrol in trials because none is available locally or they fail eligibility, and that when offered, more than half agree to participate regardless of race, reframing under-representation as a structural problem. His SWOG analyses have quantified the survival benefits of trial participation and the effects of Medicaid expansion.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Unger%20JM%5BAuthor%5D%20clinical%20trial%20participation"}],"tags":["trials","disparities","biostatistics"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["fred-hutch"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-unger-trial-participation-barriers-jnci-2019"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Associate Professor, Public Health Sciences and SWOG Statistics and Data Management Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center","institutionId":"fred-hutch","specialisms":["Trial participation and access","Health disparities","Biostatistics","Cooperative-group trials"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Unger%20JM%5BAuthor%5D%20clinical%20trial%20participation"}],"papers":[{"title":"Systematic review and meta-analysis of the magnitude of structural, clinical, and physician and patient barriers to cancer clinical trial participation","journal":"JNCI","year":2019,"doi":"10.1093/jnci/djy221"},{"title":"'When offered to participate': a systematic review and meta-analysis of patient agreement to participate in cancer clinical trials","journal":"JNCI","year":2021,"doi":"10.1093/jnci/djaa155"}],"orcid":"0000-0002-5191-0317"},"route":"/people/joseph-unger/","neighbours":{"institution":[{"id":"fred-hutch","kind":"institution","name":"Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/fred-hutch/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-unger-trial-participation-barriers-jnci-2019","kind":"paper","name":"Unger: most patients never get the chance to join a cancer trial, and when offered, half say yes","route":"/key-papers/paper-unger-trial-participation-barriers-jnci-2019/"}]}}