NCI grants RTOG $60.5M with six-year renewal

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has extended its cooperative group agreement with the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) for an additional six years and awarded the group $60.5 million to carry out its research effort.

The RTOG said it has received 36 years of continuous funding from the NCI and this award will sustain the group's efforts until 2014. The group, administered by the American College of Radiology, is a national multicenter clinical trials organization that tests radiotherapy and combined modality approaches to cancer treatment.

The NCI cooperative clinical research grant will help fund RTOG's roster of 37 clinical trials open to patient enrollment at more than 300 research institutions in the United States, Canada and internationally, according to the group. The award also supports its "headquarters and statistical center in Philadelphia and helps to defray the cost of patient enrollment at RTOG's member sites."

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