Tracking SWOG’s Impact, In Year-Sized Bites

The report is a snapshot of our progress made in 2017. It’s one way of being accountable and accessible, and operating as a (somewhat) data-driven organization. You can’t celebrate successes, correct mistakes, or make positive changes if you’re not looking at your numbers regularly.

Some are up – and some are down – compared to last year’s inaugural report. We had a minor dip in the number of new member sites compared to 2016. But we activated more trials, and reviewed more trial concepts. It’s still too early to really know what to make of the comparisons. Over time, we’ll get a sense of what is “normal” and can track meaningful trends. And over the course of many years, we can even test whether new projects or processes are making a difference in how well we launch, manage, close, and disseminate results from our trials.

It’s also important that we track qualitative data as well as quantitative data. The “Our Highlights” section casts a spotlight on achievements that can’t be enumerated. What do I mean? Well, we launched 12 new trials last year, but we have to ask ourselves what their potential value to science and to patients is. One of those trials was DART – the first immunotherapy trial for rare cancers. The American Cancer Society just reported that nearly 13 percent of all cancers diagnosed in 2017 in adults 20 and older were rare cancers – and we all recognize testing new treatments for rare diseases is important. It’s also difficult. But that, of course, is why SWOG and the rest of the National Clinical Trials Network should make this work is a priority.  The network can run trials that are difficult to conduct outside of our publicly-funded system. So, I think our value per trial is quite high.

Please take a look at our report, and feel free to share your thoughts. I got great feedback from you last year and hope for more. You’ve got my sincere thanks for your work in 2017, and my best wishes for a productive and peaceful 2018.