National Cancer Institute - NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and ...

M A J O R O N G O I N G I N I T I AT I V E S A N D A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S
As contributors to the goal of eliminating
suffering and death due to cancer, DCTD
staff members and their colleagues are
reexamining discovery, development,
and delivery of cancer therapeutics. What
follows is a brief summation of some of
the division’s priorities as it hastens to
find and develop more interventions
tailored to the specific characteristics
of a patient’s cancer.
Restructuring NCI–Supported
Clinical Trials
Between January 2004 and June 2005, the
Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG), a
panel of 38 clinical trialists, advocates, and
government representatives, conducted
a transparent, inclusive evaluation of the
cancer clinical trials process. The aim of
the assessment was to improve efficiency,
decrease redundancy and administrative
burdens, and better coordinate activities
to enhance the development and delivery
of the best therapies to people with cancer.
The CTWG’s five-year improvement
plan was approved for implementation
by the National Cancer Advisory Board
(NCAB) in June 2005. Dr. James Doroshow,
DCTD director and CTWG chair, has
begun the process of executing the
CTWG recommendations.
A full six months ahead of schedule,
a new NCI organizational structure,
designed to oversee the Institute’s entire
clinical trials enterprise, was unveiled at
the NCAB February 2006 meeting.
The structural components of the reorganization
are the Clinical Trials Advisory
Committee (CTAC), the Clinical Trials
Operations Committee (CTOC), and the
Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials
(CCCT).
CTAC, the first new NCI advisory committee
to the director approved in the past
decade, will advise the NCI director on the
Institute’s clinical trials program and will
include members of the NCAB as well as
other NCI advisory boards and additional
cancer clinical trials experts. CTAC will
oversee implementation of CTWG initiatives,
including a review of the system to
evaluate and measure the effects of the
implementation. CTAC also will provide
advice on the use of correlative science
funds, additional funding allotted to
specific clinical trials for correlative
science and quality-of-life studies.
CTOC, an internal NCI committee chaired
by the NCI deputy director for clinical
and translational sciences, includes the
directors of every NCI division, branch, or
center involved in clinical trials. Based in
the NCI director’s office, CTOC will coordinate
clinical trials programs across NCI
and will make recommendations to
improve cost-effectiveness and reduce
duplication and overlap among NCI
components involved in clinical trials.
CTOC will also evaluate new Requests
for Applications and Program Announcements
for clinical trials prior to review by
the NCI Executive Committee.
CCCT will provide project management for
the implementation of all CTWG initiatives.
CCCT will support a number of significant
activities, including coordinating new
D I V I S I O N O F C A N C E R T R E A T M E N T A N D D I A G N O S I S ■ 7