The USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center began participating in the research activities of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) in 1987 and became a newly funded member institution in 1992. Our participation over the past five years has been characterized by steadily increasing administrative and scientific contributions (consistently ranking in the 2nd-to-3rd quartile among SWOG institutions) and patient accrual (current ranking, 3rd quartile). This has been achieved through the strong support of our Cancer Center which organized and developed several disease-based clinical research programs, provided essential core support for protocol administration, data management, quality assurance monitoring and investigational pharmacy, and implemented an NCI-approved (and grant supplemented) plan to augment the accrual of women and minorities to both intramural and SWOG clinical trials. The disease-based orientation of our Center has allowed SWOG protocols to have a high priority in our Gastrointestinal (GI), Genitourinary (GU), Breast, Hematology/Retroviral and Experimental Therapeutics programs leading to the steady growth in our SWOG patient accrual. In turn, SWOG has been the vehicle through which a growing number of our faculty have been able to bring Center-supported pilot studies and translational research efforts to a national cooperative group. Examples of these latter interactions include our GI Program (members serve as Vice- Chairman SWOG GI Committee, coordinate several SWOG GI protocols and serve as PI of two SWOG U01 grants), GU Program (Program leader serves as principal coordinator of national high-priority neoadjuvant MVAC bladder trial, members participate in funded UCOP and support our designation as a major PCPT study site) and Experimental Therapeutics Program (two highly promising regimens have been adopted into group-wide protocols, SWOG 9509 and 8835). The mutual benefit of this interaction is further reflected by the fact that 15 newly recruited USC faculty in eight different departments or divisions (GI Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Urology, Radiation Oncology, Pathology, Pulmonary Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology) have become SWOG members over the past three years. Despite major challenges from managed care in Southern California and diminished support for public health care facilities such as the USC/Los Angeles County Hospital over the past several years, our SWOG activities have grown. We therefore renew our commitment to SWOG research activities with confidence and the expectation of continued growth in patient and minority accrual, CGOP affiliates and administrative/ scientific leadership in several disease-focused areas.
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