January 29 2021
NRG Oncology Presiding Group Chair (Interim), Mitchell Machtay, MD, hosted and opened the NRG Oncology General Session at the NRG Winter 2021 Virtual Meeting. Dr. Machtay began by congratulating new NRG Board Members Kristin Higgins, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute, and Priya Rastogi, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and honored David Followill, PhD, the Director of the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) Houston Quality Assurance Center upon announcement of his retirement.
Dr. Machtay especially honored Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD, FACR, FASCO, who recently announced he will be stepping down as NRG Oncology Group Chair. Dr. Curran remarked on his time spent with NRG Oncology and thanked patients, staff, researchers, and all involved in NRG’s mission for the work they are doing. He reminded the audience of the mission that this work is meant to be for patients with input from patients and acclaimed that the future would continue to look bright for NRG’s advancements in research. Dr. Curran was one of the founding Group Chairs of NRG Oncology along with Norman Wolmark and Phil DiSaia in 2013, prior to its formation, served as the Group Chairman of the RTOG, one of NRG Oncology’s three legacy groups. A message regarding Dr. Curran from NRG Group Chairs Dr. Wolmark and Dr. Robert Mannel can be found here.
Dr. Machtay also provided the update on behalf of NRG’s Research Center, showcasing all of NRG’s new trials, the 33 trials currently in development, the NCCAPS trial focused on COVID-19 and the COVID-19 response, the ComboMATCH trial, and the Cancer Moonshot.
NRG Deputy Group Chair for Membership, David Miller, MD, broke down the statistics for NRG Oncology membership accrual by network, recognized new NRG members and new voting members, and provided an overview of the requirements needed to uphold NRG membership or voting member status. He congratulated the following top accruing sites per network:
Top Accruing Main Member Sites
- Women’s Cancer Center of Nevada
- Women and Infants Hospital
- Miami Cancer Institute
- University of Cincinnati / Barrett Cancer Center
- Banner University Medical Center, Tucson
- University of Maryland / Greenbaum Cancer Center
- University Health Network – Princess Margaret Hospital
Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
21st Century Oncology MHP – Farmington - UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
University of Iowa / Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center
Top Accruing Lead Academic Participating Sites (LAPS)
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
- CWRU Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Washington University – Siteman Cancer Center
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- University of Rochester
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Wayne State University – Karmanos Cancer Institute
- University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
Emory University – Winship Cancer Institute
Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin
Top Accruing NCORP Sites
- Southeast Clinical Oncology Research Consortium
- Heartland Cancer Research
- Kaiser Permanente
Upstate Carolina Consortium - Delaware / Christiana Care
- University of Kansas Cancer Center – MCA Rural MU
- Metro Minnesota Community Oncology Research Consortium
- Cancer Research of Wisconsin and Northern Michigan Consortium
- Michigan Cancer Research Consortium
- New Mexico Minority Underserved
NRG NCORP Contact Principal Investigator, Deborah Watkins Bruner, RN, PhD, FAAN, provided an NRG National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) update by highlighting NRG NCORP clinical trials that are available and in development currently, NRG trials that involve patient-reported outcomes, and reminded investigators that there are biospecimens available for use. She remarked on the transition of NRG Health Disparities Committee leadership from Dr. Kate Yeager to Dr. Jennifer Wenzel and thanked Dr. Yeager for her dedication and accomplishments as NRG Heath Disparities Committee Chair. Additionally, Dr. Bruner congratulated the following recipients of the NRG NCORP Pilot Project Awards:
Dr. Bruner closed by introducing NRG Oncology’s Health Equity New Investigator Mentorship Program for Underrepresented Minority Scholars. Dr. Bruner shared a video that was created for the campaign and addressed NRG’s goal to overcome systemic disparities in health outcomes among underserved and underrepresented minority communities by funding new investigators that come from and serve these communities.
NRG Biospecimen Bank Grant Co-Principal Investigator, Richard Jordan, DDS, PhD, provided the statistics on the biospecimens used so far since NRG’s inception and highlighted the process behind translational science in research. Dr. Jordan defined the difference between mandatory versus optional biospecimen collection on clinical trials and noted that biospecimens access information is available on the website.
NRG Deputy Group Chair for Communications and Publications, Harry Bear, MD, provided an update on the NRG Communications Committee initiatives through the eNewsletter, website, Principal Investigators Toolkit, trial promotional materials, patient landing webpages, and social media engagement. He further exemplified these efforts by showcasing analytics that were available for each. Dr. Bear then led into the NRG Publications Committee and by noting that NRG Oncology Publications has published 724 abstracts and 933 manuscripts since the group’s inception. Dr. Bear explained that the NRG Publications Committee recently met through a virtual retreat to discuss and address ongoing issues with authorship, to start to streamline current NRG Publications processes, and to improve tracking.
NRG Group Statistician, James Dignam, PhD, updated on the NRG Statistics and Data Management Center (SDMC) as well as the Data Monitoring Committee meeting and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trial accrual. He mentioned that minor deviations from the pandemic should not impact the outcomes of trials at this time. Dr. Dignam also recognized multiple retirements within the SDMC, including Mimi Passarello, Stuart Anderson, Roseann Bonanni, and Jean Strother; as well as noted new leadership roles for Mary Jo Antonelli as Head of Quality Assurance and the Operational Support Division, and Dr. Mei Polley as the Senior Statistician and Head of the Statistics Division.