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Background: Few studies of the under-representation of older adults in cancer clinical trials (CTs) have encompassed the entire pathway from a trial being available in a cancer centre to the patient's invitation to participate and then agreement or refusal to participate., Objectives: The study's primary objective was to evaluate CT non-invitation and refusal rates. The secondary objectives were to identify factors associated with non-invitation and refusal and to assess experiences of CT participation from the patients' and professionals' perspectives., Methods: Here, we used mixed methods and a socio-epidemiological approach to analyse reasons for the non-participation of eligible older patients with a solid cancer in cancer CTs in France., Results: We found that non-invitation and low CT participation are mainly related to the patients' sociodemographic characteristics and living conditions (such as social isolation, being single, divorced or widowed, not having children and the absence of close family members) and the healthcare professionals' perceptions of insufficient informal support or a high homecare requirement., Conclusion: Our results suggest that efforts to increase fair inclusion and the participation of older adults in CTs should target the physician-patient relationship, the medical profession and hospital funding, rather than the patient alone., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.)

In the population aged 65 and over, there were 233 943 new cases of cancer in 2015 in France. For those aged 85 and over, the incidence was 41 947 new cases of cancer (10.6% of all cancer cases). In 2015, there were 112 596 deaths specifically related to cancer of people aged over 65 (55.6% of whom were men), representing 75.3% of all deaths from cancer., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)