Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for NCI Cancer Screening Research Network: Coordinating and Communication Center (UG1 Clinical Trial Required)

Key Dates

NOT-CA-22-129 - Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for NCI Cancer Screening Research Network: ACCrual, Enrollment, and Screening Sites (ACCESS) Hub (UG1 Clinical Trial Required)

NOT-CA-22-130 - Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for NCI Cancer Screening Research Network: Statistics and Data Management Center (UG1 Clinical Trial Required)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to promote a new initiative to establish a Network entitled the Cancer Screening Research Network (CSRN) to conduct trials and studies specifically related to cancer screening. To support this initiative, the NCI intends to publish three Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) soliciting applications for UG1 cooperative research agreements to include Accrual, Enrollment, and Screening Site (ACCESS) Hubs, a Statistics and Data Management Center (SDMC), and a Coordinating and Communication Center (CCC). These entities will work collaboratively on CSRN trials and studies.

The primary goal of the CSRN is the conduct of multi-center cancer screening trials and studies. This Network is designed to take advantage of large and diverse populations receiving routine care in a variety of healthcare settings. The CSRN will engage populations in rigorous studies focused on cancer screening to improve early cancer detection and evaluate emerging cancer-screening modalities and strategies, with the ultimate goal of reducing cancer incidence, and cancer-related morbidity and mortality.

Within the new screening Network, the CCC will provide coordination of all aspects of study operations, as well as the development and implementation of communication activities. In addition, the CCC will provide trial infrastructure including management of network, steering group, and subcommittee meetings, as well as maintaining protocol and network guideline-related information. The CCC will have expertise in clinical trial recruitment and communication, provide leadership in innovative methods for trial-related communication, and develop recruitment strategies and participant-facing trial materials. The CCC will also perform ACCESS Hub audits and support ACCESS Hub personnel in navigating the NCI clinical research infrastructure.

The purpose of this Notice is to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations among multi-disciplinary investigators with expertise in cancer screening and provide ample opportunity for organizations to develop responsive applications.
The FOA is expected to be published in fall 2022 with an expected application due date in spring 2023.
This FOA will utilize the UG1 activity code. Details of the planned FOA are provided below.

This Notice encourages investigators with expertise and insights into the area of cancer screening or other disease screening to begin to consider applying for these new FOAs. In addition, collaborative investigations combining expertise in other disease screening will be encouraged and these investigators should also consider applying for these FOAs.

Cancer screening provides a unique opportunity to diagnose cancers and pre-cancerous lesions before symptoms develop, with the intent of identifying cancer in an early stage when intervention can improve patient outcomes. The NCI Cancer Screening Research Network (CSRN) will provide an infrastructure to efficiently conduct cancer screening clinical trials to assess the clinical utility of innovative cancer screening modalities and strategies. This network will use NCI’s clinical trial infrastructure, and prior experience with Medidata Rave is highly recommended. New emerging technologies, including Multi-Cancer Detection (MCD) assays that evaluate cell-free DNA or other biological components, are rapidly coming forward for commercial availability. One interest of the CSRN is the systematic evaluation of the MCD assays as cancer screening tools. A variety of challenges exist in the design and conduct of randomized controlled trials that evaluate MCD tests to screen for multiple different cancers. As an initial effort, the CSRN will collaboratively develop a feasibility study, referred to as the Vanguard study, to inform the future design of a platform trial to evaluate multiple different technologies for cancer screening in a flexible, but rigorous manner. This effort will pave the way for future large-scale clinical trials and other studies to comprehensively assess a variety of cancer screening modalities. Please access the CSRN website at https://prevention.cancer.gov/CSRN for more information.

Anticipated Research Strategy subheadings include:

CCC Structure - Describe the organizational structure and leadership of the CCC.

CCC Approach - Summarize the CCC’s experience in developing and coordinating multi-center clinical trials over the last 5 years. Describe the CCC’s experience with the following: developing and implementing recruitment strategies for large trials, communication with activities for recruitment and retention of participants in clinical trials, and auditing for clinical trials and studies.

CCC Approach to the Vanguard (pilot) study - The initial role of the CSRN will be to perform a pilot study called the Vanguard study that assesses the feasibility of initiating a randomized control trial (RTC) of multi-cancer detection (MCD) assays. In this subsection, explain how the proposed CCC would aid in the coordination, development, and implementation of the Vanguard study.

Public/State Controlled Institution of Higher Education
Private Institution of Higher Education
Nonprofit with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institution of Higher Education)
Small Business
For-Profit Organization (Other than Small Business)
State Government
Indian/Native American Tribal Government (Federally Recognized)
County governments
Independent school districts
Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
U.S. Territory or Possession
Indian/Native American Tribal Government (Other than Federally Recognized)
Regional Organization
Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government

Applications are not being solicited at this time.

Please direct all inquiries to:

Paul Pinsky, Ph.D.

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

240-276-7014

Email: [email protected]

Elyse LeeVan, M.D.
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-7314
Email: [email protected]