Fewer minority and rural cancer patients in Maryland participate in clinical trials, making it harder to develop effective treatments, according to a new study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

“If a new treatment worked in one population, we are not sure it would work in the population that didn?t participate in the trial,” said Dr. Claudia Baquet, director of the school?s Center for Health Disparities and Outreach, who led the study being published Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.