VA New England Healthcare System
VISN 1 Clinical Trials Network joins National Cancer Institute’s cooperative trials group
The VISN 1 Clinical Trials Network achieved membership to the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) in November 2014.
SWOG is a cancer research cooperative group that designs and conducts clinical trials to help prevent, detect, and treat cancer, and to enhance the quality of life for cancer survivors. It is also one of the largest groups of its kind in the United States.
The Clinical Trials Network’s goals are to provide New England Veterans broader access to emerging therapies through clinical investigation targeting diseases relevant to our population. In addition, increasing research opportunities in the VISN and implementing key findings from these trials into clinical practice will translate into better healthcare.
“Admission into SWOG will give VA researchers greater access to the latest innovations happening in oncology,” said Dr. Mary Brophy, M.D., M.P.H., VISN 1 clinical trials director.
SWOG has more than 4,000 researchers at more than 650 institutions, including 24 NCIdesignated cancer centers, as well as cancer centers in almost a dozen other countries. At any given time, there are around 100 cancer clinical trials open through SWOG.
Since the group’s founding in 1956, more than 200,000 participants have enrolled in SWOG-led clinical trials. Membership in SWOG allows us to take part in these trials, as well as other cooperative group trials.
The Clinical Trials Network applied and was accepted as a consortium of six New England VAs with oncology departments; Boston VA will serve as the administrative and logistical hub. The other five VAs are Providence, White River Junction, Togus, Manchester, and West Haven.
“Membership in SWOG will allow for greater and easier access to many more innovative cancer trials for Veterans than are currently available through the VA because it’s a wider network of researchers and physicians for VA clinicians to learn from,” said Sara Turek, M.P.H., project manager, VISN 1 Clinical Trials Network.
VA researchers will benefit, as well. “We will have access to a huge network of other SWOG researchers to learn from and can attend SWOG meetings where new research is presented,” adds Turek. “This provides the potential for collaborative activities between VA researchers and others in the SWOG network.”
Charles D. Blanke, M.D., SWOG chair, says that SWOG will benefit from the partnership, too. He posted on the SWOG website: “Bringing together these multiple VA institutions within SWOG could allow us economies of scale and consistency in addressing VA-specific challenges, providing opportunities to pilot and refine our VA Task Force’s approaches on a smaller scale, then expand the collaboration to include another 12 facilities, and then to consider systemwide VA participation. If we are successful, the other Cooperative Groups would no doubt like to open their trials with the VA system as well, benefiting the entire Clinical Trials Network.”
