At a time when a team science approach to cancer research is essential, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is providing funding and recognition of clinical investigators who lead cancer research programs at academic cancer centers. ASCO’s Cancer Research Committee (CRC) offered suggestions to NCI on how the award could be shaped in order to make it most meaningful for investigators who serve in this role.
The new Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award will provide two years of salary support for up to 10 clinical investigators who play leadership roles in clinical trials at NCI-designated cancer centers. The award recognizes outstanding clinical investigators whose work fosters team science and promotes retention of investigators in the academic setting, individuals who are not principal investigators on a National Institutes of Health grant but who are participating extensively in NCI-funded collaborative clinical trials.
The award was engendered by “the deliberations of the Clinical Trials Working Group [CTWG], a body convened by the National Cancer Advisory Board of NCI to examine methods to improve and enhance the publicly funded clinical trials enterprise,” Sheila Prindiville, MD, MPH , of NCI, explained. “One idea was that NCI could create new forms of funding support and academic recognition to promote collaborative team science.”
Dr. Prindiville serves as Director of the Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials, the office that implements the recommendations of the CTWG. Her team recognized that this particular award met a need which was not being filled. If the program is successful, the NCI may partner with private foundations to support future awards.
Because several ASCO volunteers served on the CTWG, the CRC wanted to offer ASCO recommendations for the award structure. Theodore S. Lawrence, MD, Immediate Past Chair of the committee, explained that the award supports “that critical investigator who is very good at accruing patients to studies, and is the glue within the clinical trials group… the kind of person who ‘makes it happen.’ This person may not be the first author on the paper or may not have written the grant, but without his or her efforts the work never would have occurred.”
After reviewing the CTWG report, the CRC discussed the potential goals of the award and the needs of academic investigators. The committee agreed that it would be critical to offer salary support to reinforce the important work and provide the protected time required for the leader of an academic research program.
In addition to providing funding support, the award gives valuable recognition to investigators who may not have received significant honors for their crucial work. “We’re saying that this kind of job is really valuable—you’re not kept in the shadows, you’re recognized as a key contributor in developing new clinical research,” said Dr. Lawrence, who knows firsthand the influence that such recognition can have on an oncologist’s career. In 1987, he was one of the first radiation oncologists to receive a Young Investigator Award from The AS CO Cancer Foundation®.
The ASCO Cancer Research Committee was grateful for the opportunity to provide feedback to NCI on the development of the award, as both organizations share the desire to support, acknowledge, and recognize outstanding clinical investigators whose participation and activities promote successful clinical research programs, which in turn lead to improved therapies and outcomes for patients with cancer. NCI, noted Dr. Lawrence, hopes to drive investigator-initiated research, while AS CO serves as the bridge to the practicing oncologists and their desire to implement new therapies.
This award, Joseph S. Bailes, MD, Chair of the AS CO Government Relations Committee, believes comes at just the right moment. “One of our big challenges in the United States is going to be funding cancer research. You look at the health care reform debate and clearly there’s a recognition that funding for cancer research is needed. We have a big void between where we are now and where we need to be to continue to make advances. Federally- funded research plays a critical role in answering important research questions. This program is an innovative mechanism to help ensure that NCI research fills that void and is attractive to academic investigators,” he said.
Each award consists of $50,000 per year for two years paid to the recipient’s institution, which can be applied toward the investigator’s salary, fringe benefits, and associated facilities and administrative costs. Recipients are expected to devote 10% to 15% of their time to the activities associated with the award.
For more information on the eligibility criteria and application process for 2010 Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Awards, visit
ccct.nci.nih.gov.
“We are truly excited to be able to recognize the crucial clinical investigators without whom we couldn’t conduct these trials,” Dr. Prindiville said.
