July 17 2020
The NRG Oncology General Session was hosted by the NRG Oncology Group Chairs, Dr. Walter J. Curran, Jr., Dr. Robert Mannel, and Dr. Norman Wolmark as the last open session of the NRG Oncology Virtual Summer Meeting. Dr. Curran provided welcoming remarks and started the session off with a poll to determine there were approximately 43% of polltakers that were first time attendees among the virtual audience! NRG Oncology is pleased to have so many new faces attend and listen in on the exciting updates and progress of the group. Dr. Curran thanked our sponsors, including Platinum Sponsors Clovis Oncology and Seattle Genetics and highlighted there were over 2,500 registered attendees at this event.
Dr. Curran delved into the NRG Oncology mission to improve the duration and quality of life of adult patients with specific cancers and outlined that, at this time, NRG has 136 active clinical trials, 15 NCI-approved concepts in development, 60,794 patients on trials, 1,196 publications to date, and approximately $30 million in federal funds awarded annually. He provided a background of NRG Oncology’s origin and history and acknowledged our current successes. Highlights included NRG research being included on all four Plenary Session presentations at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) 2019 Annual Meeting and our underrepresented populations enrollment that shows 12.7% self-identified patients of African descent, 8% self-identified as Hispanic or Latino descent, and 1.3% self-identified as Native Hawaiian, other Pacific Islander, Native American, or Alaska native descent on NRG trials from 2014-2017. Lastly, Dr. Curran focused on our ongoing NRG initiatives and focused on how attendees can become more involved with NRG.
Dr. Wolmark discussed the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes and NRG’s operations, including delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, and administering attenuated treatment, which leads to an increased mortality rate in the underserved populations. Laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 associated hospitalization rates continue to incline and quarantine has led to different adaptations to how we work and provide care, including increased use of telehealth and other digital tools as well as the creation of two NCI trials: the history study, NCCAPS surveying cancer patients with COVID-19 to learn more about the disease and its symptoms, and SARS-CoV-2 studying hospitalized cancer patients with COVID-19. Dr. Wolmark gave kudos to the CTEP and NCORP for their efforts during the pandemic and outlined NRG Oncology’s response which included: a shift to full work from home efforts from staff, the creation of a COVID-19 specific webpage for updates and guidance, weekly calls within the NCTN regarding COVID-19 operations, moving the NRG Summer Meeting to a virtual platform, innovations in remote informed consent and patient transfers, and audits, and the supplying of special capitation to rostered sites.
Dr. Wolmark acknowledged special thanks to Joan “Kip” Goldberg for her dedication to the organization as she retired from her position as Senior Director of the Pittsburgh Operations Center for NRG Oncology. Kip has been with NRG Oncology and previously the National Surgical Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) for 35 years. Dr. Mannel thanked Dr. William H. Rodgers for his service as he steps down from his role with NRG. Dr. Rodgers was the Chair of the NRG Pathology Committee from 2014-2020, the Chair of the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) Pathology Committee from 2003-2013, the Co-Chair of the GOG Pathology Committee prior from 1998-2003, the Co-Principal Investigator of the GOG-171 and GOG-273 trials, a member of the Developmental Therapeutics and Experimental Medicine Committees, a member of the NCI Subcommittee H. Review Panel from 2004-2010, an Integrational Panel Member, and an Ovarian Cancer Committee member from 2007-2018. Lastly, Dr. Mannel thanked Dr. Stephan Bodis for his dedication and leadership over the years as he steps down from his role as Co-Chair of the International Members Committee through his institution at the Canton Aarau Hospital in Switzerland. Dr. Bodis was instrumental in NRG Oncology’s international presence.
Dr. Mitchell Machtay, the NRG Deputy Group Chair for Research, presented the NRG Research Center Overview highlighting the organizational structure of the Research Center and citing major publications from 2020 thus far. Dr. Machtay noted that there are currently 36 new concepts in development through the NRG headquarters which have been approved by the Research Strategy Committee and the group anticipates six or more NRG trials to activate by the end of the year. NRG protocol development and conduct has still been moving forward despite the pandemic and have been rebounding in accrual. NRG Oncology is also accruing for the NCI NCCAPS and ComboMATCH trials. Lastly, Dr. Machtay focused on NRG’s plans and commitment to new investigators and growing the process to have new researchers involved through trial conduct, committee membership, ancillary projects, and biospecimen research within the organization.
Dr. Greg Yothers, the Deputy Group Statistician, provided an updated from the NRG Statistics and Data Management Center (SDMC). Dr. Yothers mentioned that the NRG Data Monitoring Committee met Thursday and reviewed 50 studies that were Phase IIR or III. The NRG SDMC was able to successfully transition amid the pandemic with all data management functions being maintained and study development continuing, however there is an impact on accrual for NRG trials of an approximate 35% decrease from February to June 2020 and for NCTN in total there was a decrease of approximately 15% in total. Accrual has since started to rebound and few studies have been materially impacted by the pandemic.
Dr. Deborah W. Bruner, the NRG NCORP Contact Principal Investigator, reported on updates on the open and developing NRG NCORP clinical trials, highlighted the top NCORP accruing sites from 2017 to 2020 (listing can be found in this article), and congratulated the awarded NRG NCORP Cancer Care Delivery Research Fellow, Dr. Megan Mullins at the University of Michigan, and the NRG NCORP Pilot Awardees. Dr. Aditya Varnam Shreenivas of the Medical College of Wisconsin received the Cancer Prevention and Control Pilot Project Award for “Buprenorphine a less toxic opioid substitute for treatment of radiation induced mucositis pain in head and neck cancer patients”. Drs. Krupal B. Patel and Maija Reblin of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center received the Cancer Care Delivery Research Pilot Project Award for “Assessing the impact of financial toxicity in head and neck cancer patients and their caregivers”.
Dr. Richard Jordan, the NRG Biospecimen Bank Contact Principal Investigator, highlighted funding issues and the award of the U24 grant for 2020-2026 (more information on the grant award in this press release). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Jordan noted that the NCTN banks experienced an average of 40% decrease in biospecimen receipt and a 60% decrease in biospecimen distribution compared to the same timeframe in 2019. This decrease was likely due to limited patient enrollment, the hold for non-urgent and/or non-mandatory biospecimens during the initial phase of the pandemic, and laboratory closures. Finally, Dr. Jordan highlighted how biospecimens can be accessed through the NCTN Navigator system.
Dr. David S. Miller, Deputy Group Chair for Membership and Research Integrity, reviewed NRG Membership requirements and overviewed NRG trial accrual by network category. Dr. Miller congratulated the top accruing members per network category as listed below:
Top Accruing Main Members from Jan. 1 – Jun. 3, 2020
- Woman and Infants Hospital
- Woman’s Cancer Center of Nevada
- University Health Network – Princess Margaret Hospital
- Banner University Medical Center – Tucson
- Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
- 21st Century Oncology MHP - Farmington
- University of Cincinnati / Barrett Cancer Center
- University of Maryland / Greenebaum Cancer Center
- UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
- Seoul National University Hospital
- Miami Cancer Institute
Top Accruing Lead Academic Participating Sites (LAPS) from Jan. 1 – Jun. 3, 2020
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
- CWRU Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Washington University – Siteman Cancer Center
- Emory University – Winship Cancer Institute
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- University of Alabama at Birmingham / Deep SouthConsortium
- Ohio State University Comprehensive CancerCenter
- Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
- Wayne State University – Karmanos CancerInstitute
Top Accruing NCORP from Jan. 1 – Jun. 3, 2020
- Delaware / Christiana Care
- Heartland Cancer Research
- Southeast Clinical Oncology Research Consortium
- Gulf South Minority Underserved
- Cancer Research of Wisconsin and NorthernMichigan Consortium
- University of Kansas Cancer Center – MCA RuralMU
- Metro Minesota Community Oncology ResearchConsortium
- Kaiser Permanente
- New Mexico Minory Underserved
- George Cases MinorityUnderserved
Dr. Harry Bear, NRG Deputy Chair of Communications andPublications, highlighted the social media efforts of NRG Oncology includingthe addition of a new “Twitter Ambassadors” program to cover the researchpresented at conferences, the monthly enewsletter called “NRG Currents” that isissued to approximately 11,000 contacts via email, weekly email broadcasts forprotocol and operational updates, and ongoing updates to our webpages on thenew website. Dr. Bear highlighted analytics for the new website and our socialmedia channels and conveyed the progress of the Patient Engagement WorkingGroup which launched our patient-facing webpage for NRG-LU003 and is currentlyworking on making the page for NRG-LU005 live. Dr. Bear reviewed the NRGPublications policy, current volume of publications since the last NRG Meeting,resource information, and outlined issues with authorship, reviews, and compliance.
Dr. Mannel provided a summary from the NRG Foundation Boardof Directors to close the NRG General Session. Dr. Mannel provided an overviewof the Board, their objectives, and subgroups and focused on their initiativeswith travel awards, seed grants, and new investigator mentorship and support.