The National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) today formally accepted 22 strategic recommendations designed to reshape and enhance the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) clinical trials system.

The recommendations are included in a report, "Restructuring the National Cancer Institute Clinical Trials Enterprise." The report was developed by the Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG), a panel of 40 stakeholders established by NCI Director Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach in 2004. NCAB's vote to accept the report sets in motion several major steps to implement the recommendations that were first presented to NCAB in February. The result is a series of initiatives that includes an implementation plan and budget.

CTWG Chair Dr. James H. Doroshow, director of NCI's Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), presented the report to NCAB. "With these steps, we hope to integrate the best of NCI's current clinical trial system into a cross-disciplinary enterprise," said Dr. Doroshow. (See Spotlight for a detailed description of the CTWG recommendations or go to http://integratedtrials.nci.nih.gov.)  Read more  

The closer we've scrutinized what it means to be a cancer survivor in the United States, the more we've learned about how remarkably complex and daunting an experience it can be. Our intensive study over the past decade has produced excellent data about the risk of second cancers and late effects of treatment, as well as cancer's impact on survivors' emotional and psychological well-being, their ability to maintain or get insurance, their function in the workplace, and even on their relationships with their families and friends.

As former ASCO President and cancer survivor Dr. David Johnson described: With this disease, there is no "Humpty Dumpty moment" during which a patient is reconstructed and simply returns to who he or she was before diagnosis.

But thanks to legions of dedicated advocates and researchers, we have made remarkable strides in elucidating the survivorship experience. And just 2 days ago, many of the more than 10 million cancer survivors in the United States celebrated National Cancer Survivors' Day, embodying all that we've learned about the travails of cancer survivors and how to offer them the individualized support they need and deserve.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.