title: Nurse scientists in cancer cooperative groups.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review the significant advances in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and symptom management among the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported clinical trials cooperative groups, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations for restructuring of the national clinical trials infrastructure, and to discuss the contributions nurses have made in national clinical trials.
  
  
  METHODS
  Published cooperative group manuscripts and NCI data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The NCI-sponsored clinical trials cooperative groups have conducted major evidence-based, practice-changing clinical trials. Despite the advances, challenges in the process of clinical trials have caused the NCI to restructure the clinical trials network to improve efficiencies and decrease time from concept to protocol development to clinical trials completion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurse investigators work with the cooperative groups for a number of reasons, including access to a large multisite population of cancer patients, making findings more generalizable. There are also increasing opportunities for areas of research including biomechanistic understanding of symptoms and symptom therapies, survivorship, and cancer care delivery.
authors.forename: Deborah Watkins
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Bruner
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: O'Mara
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D014481:United States
keywords: Cancer clinical trials; NCI cooperative groups; symptom management