Alliance Cancer Control Program Pilot Project Award

The Alliance of Clinical Trials in Oncology offers funds to support early career investigators and pilot projects in the Alliance Cancer Control Program (CCP), including cancer prevention, risk assessment, screening, symptom intervention, surveillance, health outcomes research, or specific population groups, including minority and underserved, older adult, or adolescent and young adult populations. The purpose of these pilot projects is to generate preliminary data that will lead to Alliance protocols. Eligible proposals must address at least one of the following categories and must include a research project:

  1. Foster career development for early career investigators in underrepresented minority groups through a mentored research project.
  2. Generate research within the Alliance focused on underrepresented minorities.

Eligibility:
Category 1:

  • The PI must be an early career investigator; defined as either an instructor or assistant professor position within their institution and no more than 10 years from the start of their first faculty appointment.
  • The PI must also be a self-defined member of an underrepresented minority (URM) group (defined as any individual who identifies as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islanders, or American Indian and Alaska Native).
  • Applications must include at least two (2) mentors (one of whom must be a CCP committee member).
  • The PI must submit a detailed and comprehensive mentorship plan at the time of application submission and allocate protected time to engage in training and career development activities.
  • The PI, their mentors, and their respective institutions must be Alliance members, and, if selected for funding, the PI must be a member of a relevant Alliance CCP committee prior to distribution of funds.

Category 2:

  • The PI(s) may be from any career stage.
  • Proposed projects must be in the field of cancer prevention and control, such as cancer prevention, risk assessment, screening, symptom intervention, surveillance, health outcomes research, or specific population groups, including minority and underserved, older adult, or adolescent and young adult populations.
  • Projects must address clinical trial issues related to underrepresented groups including, but not limited to, older or younger individuals or those from racial and/or ethnic, sexual and gender minority groups.
  • If Co-PIs, the contact PI must be a member of a CCP committee at the time of application.

General Information:

  • The proposed project should align with the committee membership of the investigator and have strong potential to lead to a full protocol within the Alliance.
  • Up to two (2) years of funding will be provided to each investigator upon satisfactory completion of annual progress and financial reports.
  • We are planning an Alliance workshop program to foster career development for investigators in underrepresented minority groups and/or doing research in URM patients. More details of this will follow, but participation of awardees in that program when available will be encouraged.
  • Success of these applications will be demonstrated by publications, development of a full protocol within the Alliance or establishment of the early career investigator in a leadership position within the Alliance.

To learn more about Alliance CCP Pilot Project Awards, please contact by e-mail Jill Oliveri, DrPH, at jill.oliveri@osumc.edu or phone 614-293-8174.


Past Recipients
2021

  • Sagar Sardesai, MD; Jennifer Vaughn, MD; and Maryam Lustberg, MD (The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center)
    "Episodic Future Thinking: A Behavioral Intervention to Promote Weight Loss in Breast Cancer Survivors"

2020

  • Kevin Cassel, DrPH, MPH (Hawaii Minority/Underserved NCORP)
    "Improving Quality of Life for Colon Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers"

2019

  • Audrey Calderwood, MD, MS (Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center)
    "Non-invasive Stool Testing (FIT) for Surveillance of Colonic Neoplasia in Older Adults”
  • Tanya M. Wildes, MD, MSCI (Washington University School of Medicine)
    ”Adherence to Lenalidomide in Older Adults with Multiple Myeloma”

2018

  • Rachel Freedman, MD (Dana-Farber)
    “‘ADVANCE’ (A Pilot Trial) ADjuVANt Chemotherapy in the Elderly: Developing and Evaluating Lower-Toxicity Chemotherapy Options for Older Patients with Breast Cancer”
  • Nathan Staff, MD and Charles Loprinzi, MD (Mayo Clinic)
    ”A Pilot Trial of Fingolimod for Prevention or Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy”
  • Lisa Yee, MD (City of Hope) and Maryam Lustberg, MD (Ohio State)
    “Curcumin for Breast Cancer Survivors with Aromatase Inhibitor-induced Joint Arthropathy: A Randomized Double-blinded Controlled Pilot Study”

2017

  • Kathleen Lyons, ScD, Andrew Ray, PhD and David Finley, MD (Norris Cotton Cancer Center)
    "A remotely supervised exercise program for lung cancer patients undergoing chemoradiation"
  • Allison Quick, MD and Maryam Lustberg, MD (Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center)
    "Fractional CO2 laser therapy for survivors of gynecologic malignancies"

2016

  • Aminah Jatoi, MD (Mayo Clinic)
    "Lipids to prevent carboplatin hypersensitivity reactions"
  • Rudolph Navari, MD, PhD (Northern Indiana Oncology Associates)
    "Olanzapine for the treatment of chronic nausea and/or vomiting, unrelated to chemotherapy or radiation, in advanced cancer patients: A pilot, dose-finding trial"
  • Nitin Pagedar, MD and Richard Hoffman, MD (University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine)
    "Supporting head and neck cancer survivors in making shared decisions for lung cancer screening"

2015

  • William Wood, MD, MPH (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
    ”Assessing physical fitness in cancer patients with cardiopulmonary exercise testing and wearable data generation: An Alliance pilot study proposal”

2014

  • Arti Gaur, PhD and Konstantin Dragnev, MD (Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center)
    "MicroRNAs as biomarkers of treatment efficacy and toxicity in gioblastoma patients"
  • Aminah Jatoi, MD (Mayo Clinic) and Kendrith Rowland, MD (Carle Clinic)
    "Curcumin + piperine for ureteral stent-induced symptoms in older cancer patients:  A pilot study to derive a safe, optimal biological dose"
  • Hyung Kim, MD (Cedars Sinai Medical Center)
    "Cholesterol lowering intervention for prostate cancer active surveillance"