SWOG NCORP Research Base

The SWOG National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Research Base (RB) has established itself as an innovative, collaborative, and integral part of the NCI's publicly funded cooperative group enterprise. The overall mission of the SWOG NCORP RB is to rapidly design, activate and complete biologically-driven, scientifically important, and clinically meaningful studies in cancer prevention, control, and cancer care delivery, in adults, adolescents and young adults with or at risk for cancer, and to improve quality of life and quality of survivorship for those with malignancies. Over the last grant cycle, the SWOG NCORP RB exceeded expectations with regard to scientific productivity, rapid dissemination of results, inclusiveness, faculty and student training, administrative efficiency, novel and complex trial designs, and advancement of and incorporation of the patient voice into all aspects of our work. In particular, the SWOG NCORP RB opens high-impact trials and conducts and completes them efficiently. During the reporting period, we accrued a total of 11,470 patients, of which 9897 (86%) were placed onto SWOG-coordinated studies, and 1573 (14%) were SWOG sites enrolling onto non-SWOG studies. SWOG NCORP institutions provided 45% of the accrual (n=4451) to SWOG-coordinated studies. Our results are widely disseminated and have informed multiple practice symptom management and survivorship guidelines. We published results from a large number of studies conducted during the last two cycles (125 manuscripts; 58 abstracts), with 34% issued in journals with an impact factor > 10. Overall, 96 NCORP site members were represented as authors in 54 NCORP manuscripts and abstracts. Over the next grant cycle, we will continue to expand our administrative and data infrastructure, with initiatives addressing patient reported outcomes, a robust and modern data management and patient reported outcomes core, enhanced engagement with community investigators and non-traditional partners, augmented education and involvement of patient advocates, and new quality initiatives. We will expand our research efforts in healthcare disparities across all committees, and we will collaboratively design, conduct, and accrue to novel and practice changing studies, in order to reduce the burden of cancer