Alliance for Clinical trials in oncology Foundation
special projects allocation
The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation (Alliance Foundation) supports research proposals focused on addressing high priority research areas, defined every two years during the Alliance Scientific Strategic Retreat. The goal of these priorities is to focus innovation by Alliance scientific committees on strategic areas, with the expectation that attention to these priorities will challenge researchers to accelerate the development of new treatments, cancer control approaches, and cancer care delivery results. These strategic priorities generally focus on fostering engagement of new disciplines or technologies relevant to Alliance research, or upon work to improve the design and implementation of Alliance clinical trials. The main objective is to identify discrete research projects that directly address one or more of these strategic priorities.
Alliance Strategic Priorities as announced in January 2023 are to:
Improve Operational and Trial Conduct Efficiencies
- Eliminate burden at all levels (site, patient, NCTN) to improve operational efficiency
- Reduce site burden through EHR based clinical research data transmission
- Scientific validation of streamlined data collection
- Expand implementation science, including de-implemenation
Encourage Biomarker-Based Discovery
- Use annotated banked biospecimens, data, images, or novel methods to discover and/or develop promising biomarkers
- Generate pilot data towards new clinical research and funding opportunities
- Support novel study designs that include biomarkers
Eliminate Inequities/Deliver Optimal Care
- Improve inclusion and data collection from under-represented populations, such as by race/ethnicity or rural versus urban
- Utilize/develop/validate novel methods to support inclusion of diverse populations in research such as telehealth, electronic personalized system, participant navigation
Awarded Projects
Priority #1 - Improve Operational and Trial Conduct Efficiencies
Scientific Review Coordinator - Isabelle Bedrosian, MD
Principal Investigator and Director, Alliance Procedure-Based Therapy Program
“Obtaining mCODE Structured Data Elements in Alliance Clinical Trials Using Electronic Health Record Based Tools”
Steven Piantadosi, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Amye Tevaarwek, MD, Mayo Clinic
Hamid Emamekhoo, MD, University of Wisconsin
“Development of Infrastructure to Support Accurate and De-Identified Biomarker-Based Discovery, an Alliance TRP & SDMC Collaboration”
Nicholas B. Larson, PhD, MS, Mayo Clinic
Kristina Laumann, Alliance Statistics and Data Management Center
Priority #2 - Encourage Biomarker-Based Discovery
Scientific Review Coordinator - Mark Watson, MD, PhD
Chair, Alliance Biorepository Committee
“Predicting Response to Chemotherapy and Recurrence Risk from Breast Cancer Histology”
Frederick Howard, MD, University of Chicago
Alexander T. Pearson, MD, PhD, University of Chicago
Dezheng Huo, MD, PhD, University of Chicago
Rita Nanda, MD, University of Chicago
Charles Perou, PhD, University of North Carolina
Galina Khramtsova, MD, PhD, University of Chicago
“Validation of the Sensitivity to Endocrine Therapy (SET-ER/PR) Index To Predict Survival Benefit From Paclitaxel Versus Anthracycline as Dose-dense Chemotherapy in CALGB 40101”
W. Fraser Symmans, MD, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Otto Metzger, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Karla Ballman, PhD, Mayo Clinic
Priority #3 - Eliminate Inequities / Deliver Optimal Care
Scientific Review Coordinator - Electra D. Paskett, PhD
Principal Investigator and Director
Alliance Cancer Control Program
“Eliminating Inequities and Delivering Optimal Care within the Alliance”
Marie E. Wood, MD, University of Colorado
Aminah Jatoi, MD - Mayo Clinic
Lucile Adams-Campbell, PhD - Georgetown University
John Leonard, MD - NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center
Niveditha Subbiah, LLM, MA - Alliance Cancer Control Program
Jill Oliveri, DrPH - The Ohio State University