Philadelphia, PA - The National Cancer Institute extended its cooperative group agreement with the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group for an additional six years and awarded the group $60.5 million to carry out its research effort. RTOG has received 36 years of continuous funding from the NCI and this award will sustain the group's efforts until 2014. RTOG is the leading national multicenter clinical trials organization dedicated to testing novel radiotherapy and combined modality approaches in pursuit of improving the survival and quality of life of patients with cancer. RTOG is administered by the American College of Radiology.

The independent panel convened by the NCI to review the accomplishments and future research plans of the group found that "RTOG is the premier radiation therapy organization among the Cooperative Groups and the clear international leader in this arena. In addition, RTOG has had a major impact on the technical quality of radiation delivery at all levels of the health care enterprise, since procedures adopted by RTOG are widely accepted beyond protocol studies."

The review panel rated RTOG's research accomplishments and future plans for patients with brain tumors, head and neck cancer, and genitourinary cancer as outstanding. RTOG's other major scientific research areas were rated as excellent: gastrointestinal cancer, lung cancer, advanced technology integration, health services and outcomes research, and translational research. The panel highlighted several of the group's accomplishments including: a reduction in local recurrence with the use of chemoradiotherapy for patients with advanced head and neck cancer; an increase in survival for patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma; a 33% improvement in survival for patients with a single brain metastasis; a clarification of the benefit of adding cisplatin to 5-FU, mitomycin C, and radiotherapy for anal canal cancer; a definition of the role of surgery in N2 lung cancer; and the establishment of a standard of care for bone metastases at a single high dose of radiation therapy.
"The strength and breadth of RTOG's recent investigations and its innovative plans for future research is a testimony to the dedication, creativity, and intellectual rigor of our member investigators," said Walter J. Curran, Jr., the RTOG Group Chair and principal investigator of this award. "For over 40 years RTOG has set the standard for radiation therapy-related research both in the United States and internationally. NCI's award of the maximum term of funding is a validation of our research," stated Curran, who is the Lawrence W. Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology in the Emory School of Medicine and Chief Medical Officer of the Emory Winship Cancer Institute.

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