January 14, 2025



Join Dr. Parminder Singh and Team Hope for the 2025 Tour de Scottsdale  

Dr. Parminder Singh launched this charity cycling effort in 2024, raising $12,608 with the help of four on-site volunteers and seven Team Hope riders. This year the group aims to raise $25,000 to benefit our Early Stage Investigator Training Course (ESITC), a program that trains researchers as they develop their first cooperative group clinical trials.  

Dr. Singh shared why he believes in the ESITC and what makes SWOG unique:

“The ESITC is thoughtfully designed, featuring training sessions led by experts in clinical trial design, statistics, operations, and patient advocacy, as well as insights from leaders who have successfully launched major trials. One of SWOG’s key strengths is its extensive and diverse membership, which includes not only NCI-designated academic cancer centers but also community practices, Veterans Affairs hospitals, and community hospitals. This broad network ensures that patients across the socioeconomic spectrum have access to state-of-the-art, practice-changing clinical trials.” 

Click here to support Team Hope.

Interested in Joining the Ride?

Riders for Team Hope will participate in a 62- or 32-mile cycling route. The longer ride circumnavigates the McDowell Mountains and passes through Scottsdale, Rio Verde, and Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Live Locally? Attend our post-ride gathering in Scottsdale!

Join us in the evening on April 12 to connect with riders and friends. Dinner and refreshments provided. You do not have to ride or volunteer at the event to attend.

Celebrating the Power of Giving

Last year we challenged our network members to increase their support or give a first-time gift to meet our Rising Innovator Goal of $25,000. Thanks to their generosity, we raised $25,452 and met the goal! 

Members share how Hope funding makes a difference: 

• “One of the biggest changes to oncology research was getting veterans involved again. Because of Hope funding, we were able to pilot VA research, and that attracted National Cancer Institute (NCI) attention. Now there’s a national program – NAVIGATE – which holds astonishing promise.”

– Charles D. Blanke, MD, SWOG chair

• “Attending the fall 2024 group meeting allowed me to see the breadth of the organization, learn more about current and upcoming trials, and network with other research sites. I was able to bring my team insight into navigating the network’s website, promoting new and existing trials, as well as introduce the new program to our Advanced Practice Providers new to clinical research.”

– Christine Gillespie, CCRC, Hope professional development award recipient 

• “Hope provides an opportunity for early career investigators to be involved, to get grants, to build a career, and to build a network of collaborators. They fund all our educational activities. They provide the resources you just can’t get anywhere else. Hope invests in people – and that’s a game-changer.”

– Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS, SWOG co-chair-elect  

In 2024 more than 22,000 patients were enrolled in or being monitored through our network’s trials at more than 1,300 institutions, and group researchers’ study results were published in high impact-factor medical journals 40 times. During this same time, we supported more than 2,600 members with career and professional development, and with direct research funding – thank you to our donors who made this possible. You drive real progress for people diagnosed with cancer every day.