April 03 2024
NRG Oncology, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) group focused on improving outcomes for adults with cancer through multi-center clinical research, recently announced a new Chair and Vice Chair of the organization’s Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Committee.
The NRG CPC Committee is centered around cancer prevention priorities such as reducing cancer risk through optimal screening, biomarker evaluation, and risk reduction strategies in NRG research. The CPC Committee is part of NRG’s NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) research base.
Julie Bauman, MD, MPH, was appointed Chair of the NRG CPC Committee after previously serving as the committee’s Vice Chair. She is the Director of the George Washington (GW) University Cancer Center as well as the Associate Dean of Cancer and a professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Her research focuses on biomarker-driven, early phase clinical trials intended to prevent or improve oncologic outcomes in head and neck cancer. Currently, Dr. Bauman is the Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) of the University of Arizona Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network which performs early phase cancer prevention trials evaluating surrogate biomarker modulation by candidate chemoprevention agents across multiple organ sites. She currently serves as the Co-Chair of the NCI Cancer Prevention Steering Committee and the Co-Chair of the Previously Untreated Locally Advanced (PULA) Task Force of the NCI Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee. Dr. Bauman will be serving as NRG CPC Chair alongside Committee Co-Chair, Dr. Lisa Kachnic.
Stephanie V. Blank, MD, is the incoming Vice Chair of the NRG CPC Committee and will be serving alongside current co-vice chair, Dr. Tracey Crane. Dr. Blank is the Director of Gynecologic Oncology for the Mount Sinai Health System and a professor of gynecologic oncology in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Mount Sinai. Additionally, she serves as the Associate Director of the Tisch Cancer Institute, Women’s Cancer at the Icahn School of Medicine and as the Director of Women’s Health at the Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai. Dr. Blank is also a member of the NRG Ovarian Cancer Committee and the GOG Investigator’s Council. Her research focuses on gynecologic care for patients as they progress in their disease. Dr. Blank also notes a specific interest in caring for patients at increased genetic risk for cancer and directs a comprehensive previvor program based in New York City.
NRG Oncology extends its warmest regards to outgoing Committee Chair, Dr. Warner Huh, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. NRG is grateful for the guidance and leadership Dr. Huh has provided in his tenure. Importantly, he will continue to serve as the senior investigator on NRG-CC008: A nonrandomized prospective clinical trial comparing the non-inferiority of salpingectomy to salpingo-oophorectomy to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer among BRCA1 carriers [SOROCk].
About NRG OncologyNRG Oncology conducts practice-changing, multi-institutional clinical and translational research to improve the lives of patients with cancer. Founded in 2012, NRG Oncology is a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit corporation that integrates the research of the legacy National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), and Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) programs. The research network seeks to carry out clinical trials with emphases on gender-specific malignancies, including gynecologic, breast, and prostate cancers, and on localized or locally advanced cancers of all types. NRG Oncology’s extensive research organization comprises multidisciplinary investigators, including medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons, physicists, pathologists, and statisticians, and encompasses more than 1,300 research sites located world-wide with predominance in the United States and Canada. NRG Oncology is supported primarily through grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and is one of five research groups in the NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network.