The NCI-sponsored cooperative groups have made important contributions to improving treatment for many types of cancer, including breast, ovarian, colorectal, and childhood cancers. Cooperative group research has been instrumental in establishing innovative treatments that improve outcomes and quality of life. Despite these successes, the Cooperative Group Program has faced a number of challenges that threaten its effectiveness.

To address this problem, the National Cancer Policy Forum (NCPF) convened a workshop titled "Multi-Center Phase III Clinical Trials and NCI Cooperative Groups" in Washington, DC, on July 1-2, 2008. The purpose of the workshop was to outline the challenges that the public clinical cancer research enterprise faces, and to identify possible solutions to these challenges.

• Front Matter
• Introduction
• Session 1A: Organization of the NCI Clinical Trials System
• Session 1B: Lessons from Non-Cooperative Group Multi-Center Clinical Trials
• Session 2: Barriers to Patient Recruitment and Physician Participation
• Session 3: Data Collection Standards and Monitoring
• Session 4: Costs of Cooperative Group Clinical Trials
• Summary and Wrap-Up
• References
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Glossary
• Appendix A: Workshop Agenda
• Appendix B: Workshop Speakers
• Appendix C: Letter from John Niederhuber, Director of the National Cancer Institute, to Members of the National Cancer Policy Forum