|
Welcome to the NRG Oncology eNewsletter
| |
|
National Cancer Prevention Month
| |
February is National Cancer Prevention Month. Please learn more about NRG Oncology’s two available prevention studies that are currently open to enrollment for patients: NRG-CC005 (FORTE) examining 5 or 10 year colonoscopy for 1-2 non-advanced adenomatous polyps, and NRG-CC008 (SOROCk) for ovarian cancer risk reduction among BRCA1 carriers. | |
|
NRG NCORP: Who We Are and How to Get Involved
| |
“The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) is a national network that brings cancer clinical trials and care delivery studies to people in their own communities.” Learn more about NCORP and how you can work with us: | |
|
The NRG Health Equity Fellowship Program
| |
NRG Oncology and NRG NCORP developed a 2-year Health Equity Fellowship Program with a focus on recruiting under-represented minorities in an effort to engage the young faculty coming into NRG. Learn more about this program: | |
|
NRG Oncology Selects Three Awardees for Health Equity Fellowship Program
| |
NRG Oncology (NRG), a National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) group, recently announced that they have awarded three health equity fellows as a part of the organization’s Health Equity Fellowship Program. Fellowship awardees include Dr. Idalid Franco, Dr. Sophia Kamran, and Dr. Anwaar Saeed.
NRG’s Health Equity Fellowship Program was initially established by Joan Walker, MD, of The University of Oklahoma Stephenson Cancer Center and an NRG NCORP Principal Investigator, to train selected early-stage investigators in the NRG Oncology system by means of a structured mentorship experience. The program has an emphasis on the recruitment of researchers from underrepresented groups. Selected fellows receive an award of $50,000 for two years with an end result of developing a new research protocol within NRG Oncology.
| |
|
NRG New Protocols Under Development
| |
|
New Protocols Under Development
| |
Participant Travel Allowance | |
Some NRG-CC005/FORTE sites have encountered resistance regarding patients’ willingness to travel the distances required for consent, blood collection, and retrieval of the stool collection kit. As such, the CIRB may approve, upon request, the addition of a “travel allowance” for patients to reduce their burden with travel to participate. Please note that NRG Oncology does not distribute additional site reimbursement for a participant travel allowance. Sites must use existing site reimbursement or network application funding for this purpose. Likewise, review local IRB guidelines to determine whether the addition of a travel allowance would require local IRB approval. NRG encourages clinical research professionals to examine this avenue to potentially increase participant accrual to FORTE. | |
|
|
Head & Neck Cancer Committee Update
| |
|
Initial Report on Establishing Working Groups within the Head and Neck Cancer Committee
Written by NRG Head & Neck Cancer Committee Chair Sue S. Yom, MD and Vice Chair Stuart J. Wong, MD
The NRG Oncology membership processes were revised last year to take place on an annually scheduled cycle. This led to a re-examination of the membership structure of the Head and Neck Cancer Committee. After review by the Committee Chair and Co-Chairs, it was decided to form several Working Groups, which will be populated from the annual membership call.
Historically the Head and Neck Cancer Committee has had two such groups, the Head and Neck Surgery and Head and Neck Translational Science Working Groups. One additional Working Group was already in existence to support surgical quality assurance for the ongoing trial NRG-HN006. The reasons for formation of additional Working Groups were several. Primarily, as the complexity of the Committee’s work has grown, there is a need for greater support and assistance in the development, implementation, and ongoing conduct of protocols. Furthermore, these additional groups will enable greater development and mentorship of early-career and new investigators, foster inclusion and diversity of the Committee’s membership, and provide an opportunity to elevate innovations in science or organizational processes via the direct linkage of the WGs to Committee leadership.
| |
|
NRG Protocol Support Committee (PSC) Column
| |
|
NRG Oncology PSC 2023 Winter Meeting Wrap Up
Written by Stacey G Lewis, RN, BSN, OCN Clinical Research Educator Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center , Clinical Protocol and Data Management, Winston Salem, NC
| |
On behalf of the Protocol Support Committee (PSC), we would like to thank everyone who attended the Semiannual NRG Oncology Meeting in sunny Orlando. There were 155 in-person attendees and 300 virtual attendees for the Introduction to Clinical Trials education sessions on Thursday. We sincerely apologize for the technical errors with the zoom settings including some unwanted virtual chatter and capacity issues, however these issues were addressed and resolved in time for our Friday morning session. The Friday morning PSC Nurse/CRA Continuing Education session included 108 in-person attendees and 232 virtual participants. The members of the PSC and NRG Oncology appreciate everyone’s patience while we continue to navigate the ins and outs of the hybrid-meeting model. Please give a hand to our wonderful Education & Training Working Group led by Lead Facilitator Cindy Licavoli, along with Co-facilitators Marissa Weiss, and Lauren Seames, for putting on two days of fabulous programming. | |
|
|
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Council elected 505 members as Fellows for their contributions and notable achievements towards scientific advancements in their careers.
“AAAS is proud to elevate these standout individuals and recognize the many ways in which they’ve advanced scientific excellence, tackled complex societal challenges and pushed boundaries that will reap benefits for years to come,” said Sudip S. Parikh, Ph.D., AAAS Chief Executive Officer and Executive Publisher of the Science family of journals.
Congratulations to the NRG members that are listed in the 2022 Fellows List here!
| |
|
|
Thank you to all NRG2023 attendees who joined us either in Orlando or virtually.
Please continue to check the NRG Oncology Meeting Webpages as ongoing updates are made as recordings and slides become available.
| |
|
|
Sessions on Friday kicked off with the Social Media Workshop, chaired by Miriam Knoll, MD, and Kristin Higgins, MD. The session speakers were Eleonora Teplinsky, MD from Valley Health System and Narjust Florez, MD from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Both speakers discussed the use of Twitter and other social media platforms for oncologists.
The General Session was hosted by the NRG Oncology Group Chairs, Dr. Robert Mannel, who chaired the session, and Drs. Quynh-Thu Le and Norman Wolmark. The General Session provides updates from activities around the organization. A highlight from that information was about the creation of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee chaired by Dr. Katherine Moxley and vice chairs, Dr. Kate Hitchcock and Eleanor Walker. Deputy Group Chairs for Research, Membership, and Publications/Communications and leadership from NCORP, Statistics, and the Biospecimen Banks gave updates for their areas of NRG.
We were extremely pleased to have NCI Director, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, join us via a pre-recorded message for the Scientific Session. Her inspiring comments about her vision for the NCI and clinical trial research within the NCTN groups were motivating. Dr. Marie Bernard, NIH Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity, was the keynote speaker and discussed the importance of DEI opportunities in cancer research. The final presentation was from Dr. Katherine Moxley, chair of the new NRG DEI Committee. She provided an overview for how this committee plans to implement diversity and inclusion across the NRG Oncology organization.
Recap Email Broadcasts during NRG2023:
#NRG2023 Meeting Recap - Saturday, January 28th email
#NRG2023 Thursday Recap - Friday, January 27th email
| | | | |
