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The War on Cancer: Raise the bar, or move the goal line?
Plenary Session
SWOG Fall 2009 Group Meeting
Friday, October 23, 12:15 - 2:45 pm
Gold Level, Regency B - D
Hyatt Regency Chicago
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Chair's Corner
How should we spell success?
 Questions of how we define success in cancer research and how costs should factor into that definition have been much in the news.
In considering this debate (which will be engaged at the plenary session of this fall's Group Meeting), I was struck by a commentary in the August 5th Journal of the National Cancer Institute titled "How Much Is Life Worth."
If you haven't seen it, I suggest you read and consider.
Reflecting on these issues in light of the summary statement that came from the NCI committee reviewing our treatment grant raises two questions SWOG needs to tackle:
- How do we avoid starting phase III studies that we can't complete or that are very slow to accrue?
- How do we ensure that new ideas come forward from the laboratory that have the potential to change the care and improve the outcome of cancer patients?
When we discussed these questions at SWOG's Executive Summit in Seattle last month, we came to something of a consensus on two ideas.
First, our Statistical Center will routinely provide data for each proposed study that cites our prior experiences with that patient population. Some of our committees already have this information when making their decisions, but these data will soon be part of all SWOG concept submissions, which should help us more accurately estimate the length of time needed to complete accrual for any proposed trial.
Second, we propose that all new phase III trial concepts have a statement within the primary objective that defines the target difference between the experimental and control arms as a clinically significant difference, not just a p value or hazard ratio.
We will leave it to each committee to determine what endpoint is clinically significant.
As you plan for the Chicago meeting, give thought to these proposals. We will discuss them further at the committee chairs meeting scheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2009.
I look forward to seeing you all at the plenary session to debate these issues!
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