May 14 2024
Written by Vlad C. Sandulache MD PhD and Maria Kelly MD
National Veterans Research Week (May 13-17) highlights advances in clinical care for our nation’s Veterans across the breadth of disease entities brought about through a continuous bench to bedside approach. This year’s theme is “Building Community Through Research” and will focus on celebrating the accomplishments of researchers and clinicians in bringing state of the art treatments and cures to Veteran patients.
Three years into its newly re-organized form, the NRG Oncology Veterans Affairs and Military Treatment Facilities Subcommittee continues to bring together researchers and clinicians from across the large Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense communities in order to make state of the art clinical trials available to Veterans with cancer. In order to facilitate implementation of NCTN trials, the subcommittee has worked closely with physician-investigators across the VHA to expand the existing NCI and VA Interagency Group to Accelerate Trials Enrollment (NAVIGATE) program to new sites, with a continuous focus on increasing access to radiation-based/oriented trials for solid tumors. In addition, the subcommittee continues to work closely with VHA leadership to increase funding for clinical trial support across the entire network in order to meet the goals outlined in President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot.
For Veterans with cancer, recent advances in immuno-oncology, targeted agents and continued optimization of conventional treatment algorithms have brought about improved disease-free survival along with enhanced quality of life. Yet Veteran participation in NCTN therapeutic clinical trials remains low across the nation. This month, we choose to celebrate successes, hard won successes. The Bay Pines VAMC team led by Dr. Ryan J. Burri has taken on a leadership role by making the Bay Pines VAMC a primary NRG Oncology member, the first in the nation. Now active, this VAMC is leading the charge against a disease which disproportionately impacts Veteran patients, namely colorectal cancer.
“In the first two months of recruitment, approximately 60% of veterans approached at the Bay Pines VA consented to enroll on FORTE (NRG CC005). VA is poised to be a major contributor to the success of this important trial,” stated Ryan Burri, MD, the site Principal Investigator for FORTE at Bay Pines VAMC.
As we recognize the disproportionate impact of head and neck cancer on our nation’s Veterans, we can recognize increased success in opening long awaited therapeutic trials in this space, including NRG-HN009 (Randomized Phase II/III Trial of Radiation with High-Dose Cisplatin (100 mg/m2) Every Three Weeks versus Radiation with Low-Dose Weekly Cisplatin (40 mg/m2) for Patients with Locoregionally Advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma of The Head And Neck (SCCHN)) which is now enrolling patients at multiple VHA sites including Bay Pines and the Hines VAMC. Members of the subcommittee also continue to provide critical feedback and insight into development of NRG-HN012 ((The “XCELSIOR” Study): Randomized Phase II/III Trial of Radiotherapy with Concurrent Xevinapant vs. Cetuximab for Locoregionally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer Patients with a Cisplatin Contraindication).
As we celebrate achievements translated to the bedside across VAMCs it is critical that we maintain a laser focus on a critical mission to improve cancer care for Veterans, through broad activation of therapeutic trials across the country.
The NRG VA-MTF Subcommittee would like to recognize and thank our VA-MTF sites for their consistent efforts and enrollment to NRG sites, notable recent accrual accomplishments are below:
- William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, WI has enrolled 4 patients to NRG-HN009.
- Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital is in the process of opening NRG-GU009 and NRG-GU010 clinical studies at their site.
- Durham VAMC has enrolled 15 patients to NRG-GU009 and 7 patients to NRG-GU010 with 3 patients pending enrollment.
- VA Ann Arbor is currently opening multiple NRG Oncology genitourinary studies.
- Bay Pines VAMC has enrolled 12 patients total to NRG trials since February 2024, including NRG-HN009 and the FORTE study. Bay Pines VAMC is also aiming to open NRG-GU010 and NRG-GU009 at their site in the next month.