$15 million in funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health – through the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) – has been awarded to the NCIC Clinical Trials Group (CTG) at Queen’s University.
The funds will be used to strengthen CTG’s work in leading major cancer clinical trials in Canada by increasing their collaborations with the NCI in the U.S. and its National Clinical Trials Network.
This will enable Canadian cancer patients to get access to cutting-edge international clinical trials that could potentially help prolong and improve their quality of life. The arrangement will also allow NCIC CTG to open its trials to the U.S. groups.
“This funding will really increase North American collaboration in clinical cancer research,” said Interim Director of NCIC CTG, Elizabeth Eisenhauer, in a Queen’s News Centre release. “This funding means so much to cancer patients in North America. New drug testing opportunities will help us win the fight against this terrible disease.”
The NCIC Clinical Trials Group’s history of collaboration with the U.S.-based groups began in the 1990s with funding being received from the NCI since 1997; marking the start of a continuing relationship with other American cancer clinical trials groups.
The Queen’s University NCIC CTG is Canada’s only cooperative cancer trials group that conducts the entire range of cancer trials – from early phase studies to the large international randomized controlled trials across all cancer types.
Learn more about the Clinical Trials Group at the NCIC CTG website.
Image source: Queen’s University
