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

CANCER THERAPY EVALUATION PROGRAM
The Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program fosters collaborations
within the cancer clinical research community and works
extensively with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology
industries.
The death rate from all cancers
combined has been decreasing in
the United States since 1991, and
since 2003 the decrease has been large
enough to outpace the growth and aging
of the population, reducing the actual
number of cancer deaths—a remarkable
turn in the decades-long fight against
cancer.
This milestone has been achieved, in part,
because therapeutic and preventive interventions
to fight cancer are working. One
key to the success of these interventions
is that they were tested rigorously in the
clinic. Clinical trials are the mechanism for
testing new approaches for cancer prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment. More
than 1500 NCI-sponsored clinical trials are
conducted annually, and some 900 treatment
trials are sponsored by the Cancer
Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) within
the Division of Cancer Treatment and
Diagnosis (DCTD).
CTEP is organized into nine offices and
branches:
■ Office of the Associate Director
■ Clinical Grants and Contracts Branch
■ Clinical Investigations Branch
■ Clinical Trials Monitoring Branch
O V E R V I E W
■ Investigational Drug Branch
■ Pharmaceutical Management Branch
■ Protocol and Information Office
■ Regulatory Affairs Branch
■ Office of AIDS Malignancy Program
Not only does CTEP identify promising
agents for evaluation, but also it identifies
biomolecular characteristics of malignant
Dr. Michaele C. Christian, Associate Director
Michaele Chamblee Christian, M.D., was appointed Associate
Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of DCTD in
1997. She previously worked in the Investigational Drug Branch
overseeing the clinical development of novel anticancer drugs.
In 1995, she established NCI’s Clinical Trials Monitoring Branch,
which oversees quality assurance and compliance for hundreds
of NCI clinical trials.
Dr. Christian received her M.D. from Georgetown University
School of Medicine, graduating summa cum laude. Additionally,
she completed residency training in internal medicine and fellowships in hematology
and oncology at Georgetown. Among numerous awards, Dr. Christian received the Kober
Award for highest academic achievement and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha
medical honor society. Her research interests include early therapeutics development,
ovarian cancer treatment, clinical trial design, and enhancing participation of under-
represented populations in clinical trials.
Dr. Christian is often asked to speak about new opportunities in clinical research, including
accelerating bench to bedside or practical translational research, using clinical trials
networks to address broader transdisciplinary research questions, and the growing use of
international collaborations to conduct research that addresses global medical needs.
C A N C E R T H E R A P Y E V A L U A T I O N P R O G R A M ■ 65