The NCI and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are collaborating on the NCI and VA Interagency Group to Accelerate Trials Enrollment, or NAVIGATE, which will launch at 12 VA facilities across the country. The program aims to increase participation of veterans with cancer in NCI-sponsored clinical trials.

The NCI is teaming up with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to improve veterans' access to cancer clinical trials. The effort, dubbed the NCI and VA Interagency Group to Accelerate Trials Enrollment, or NAVIGATE, is being launched at 12 VA facilities across the country.

“The goal of the collaboration is to offer more veterans who have been diagnosed with cancer access to promising new cancer therapies through participation in NCI-supported clinical trials directly at VA medical centers,” says Sheila Prindiville, MD, director of the Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials at the NCI.

According to the most recent data, more than 46,000 new cases of cancer were reported in the VA's Central Cancer Registry in 2010: 97% of cases occurred in men, and prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers were the most common (Mil Med 2017;182:e1883–91). However, fewer veterans have been participating in NCI-supported clinical trials in recent years, possibly because they are unaware that such trials can offer a treatment option, and because of a lack of infrastructure at VA facilities to support their participation.

As part of NAVIGATE, the NCI will provide infrastructure funding for VA medical centers to take part in NCI trials. For its part, the VA will manage day-to-day activities within its healthcare system to establish a network to focus on the goals of NCI trials.

Prindiville hopes the program will prompt more VA facilities to enroll veterans with cancer in NCI-supported trials—carried out through the NCI's National Clinical Trials Network and the NCI Community Oncology Research Program—and encourage VA investigators to participate in NCI-supported clinical cancer research. She adds that NAVIGATE will also allow researchers to gather data on why patients do not enroll in trials, which could inform the design of future trials.

Although NAVIGATE could last for up to 3 years, it should help VA sites establish the infrastructure necessary to participate in NCI trials long beyond that.

Ultimately, the benefits of the program won't be limited to the veterans who enroll in the trials. “The increased participation of VA sites should enhance accrual to NCI-supported clinical trials,” says Prindiville, “allowing for the trials to be completed more quickly—and new treatments to become available sooner—thus advancing cancer care for all patients.” –Catherine Caruso

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/CDNews.

©2018 American Association for Cancer Research.
2018
American Association for Cancer Research.