Adult sarcomas: a missed opportunity for sustained cooperative group translational and clinical research.
Preclinical advances offer an opportunity to further reduce morbidity and mortality from sarcomas over the next decade. Since no single institution or North American cooperative oncology group has the expertise or patient resources for histology-specific clinical and translational research on adult sarcomas, efforts have been made to develop funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). One such initiative was the Intergroup Coalition Against Sarcomas (ICAS), which, building upon the strengths of the multimodality cooperative oncology groups, provided an infrastructure for broad participation by investigators from all treatment disciplines in protocol development and patient entry. However, despite an excellent evaluation in formal peer review, the Division of Cancer Treatment of NCI has ended this initiative claiming insufficient available funds--to the detriment of adult sarcoma patients now and in the future.
Borden
Ernest C
EC
Taussig Cancer Center Center for Hematology and Oncology Molecular Therapeutics, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
D000328:Adult; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D046152:Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D006265:Health Care Coalitions; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D012109:Research Support as Topic; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D014481:United States