NCI’s trials network has saved 3.34m US life-years

The network of cooperative cancer research groups sponsored by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) has benefited patients with cancer significantly, with the general population gaining an estimated 3.34 million life-years through its work. More than 50 years ago, the NCI established a network of publicly funded cancer cooperative research groups to evaluate new treatments for safety and efficacy. This study, which was published in JAMA Oncology (doi:10.1001/jamaoncol. 2017.0762) and presented at the 2017 ASCO annual meeting, used data from SWOG, one of the original cooperative research groups, which was launched in 1956 as a paediatric oncology group under a…