SWOG is one of the largest of several national cooperative groups that have conducted large, objective multi-center clinical trials to test promising cancer treatment and prevention measures since the 1950s.
SWOG has more than 5,000 affiliated physician researchers participating at 516 institutions in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. Many are at large universities and community clinical oncology programs working together with health practitioners across the country. They design trials, enlist patients, monitor results and draw pivotal conclusions about cancer care. Among the Southwest Oncology Group's institutions are 19 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.
SWOG has four bases of operation: the Group Chair’s Office in Ann Arbor, Mich.; the Associate Group Chair's Office in Orange, Calif.; the Operations Office in San Antonio, Tex.; and the Statistical Center in Seattle, Wash.
SWOG conducts large Phase III trials such as the ongoing seven-to-12-year Selenium and Vitamin E. Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), a prostate cancer prevention study in which more than 35,000 men enrolled, and a newly opened trial in women with breast cancer to test the effectiveness of three drugs in preventing or delaying metastasis to the bone. SWOG also conducts groundbreaking Phase I and Phase II studies to test new targeted therapies and tissue studies that put to work the latest discoveries in cancer genetics.
