The University of Michigan has been participating as a fully funded member with Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) since January 1, 1980. We view SWOG participation as an important component of a large cancer research effort at our institution. We remain committed to the concept that multi-institutional collaboration is essential to the advancement of cancer treatment. Our goals as a member institution in SWOG remain the same as in years past, namely to make significant scientific, administrative and patient data contributions to the Group's effort to study and improve cancer therapy. We continue to believe in the cooperative group process that involves the collection of patient data, adopting uniform toxicity and response criteria, and conducting purposeful clinical trials as well as introducing the concept of merging """"""""spores"""""""" into the cooperative group mechanism. Cooperative groups have provided the only settings in which the sophisticated concepts of combined modality and adjuvant therapies could be properly investigated. The processes have also produced an improved understanding of the important relationships between prognostic factors, therapy and patient survival that could not have been gained otherwise. Our participation in SWOG is multidisciplinary with membership that included hematologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists, surgeons and various surgical subspecialties (in particular urology oncology, orthopedics, breast, otolaryngology, gynecology and thoracic), nurses and clinical research associates all involved in group activities which has strengthened with the recruitment of senior leadership, as well as talented junior faculty to complement an already strong base of clinical and basic researchers. Our participation in SWOG during the last five years has been characterized by a high level of data management and protocol compliance, good level of administrative/scientific contributions and an average level of patient registration contributions, (1997 =41 pts, 1998= 33 pts, 1999= 47 pts, 2000= 33 pts, 2001 = 57 pts, 2002= 17 pts; total= 225 pts). We expect to increase patient accrual to approximately 50-100 pts per year with the increased commitment amongst SWOG investigators at the University of Michigan and CGOP affiliates.
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