Skip to Content
Contact DCTD
Show menu
Search this site
Last Updated: 11/06/2019

DCTD’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program Convenes 2019 Early Drug Development Meeting

DCTD’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program Convenes 2019 Early Drug Development Meeting

On October 17-18, 2019, the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) sponsored its annual Early Drug Development (EDD) meeting. The EDD meeting is an educational event focused on enhancing communications between the NCI and the network of CTEP-supported Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN)-funded early clinical trial investigators.

Academic, government, and pharmaceutical company clinical investigators and related health care personnel involved in oncology early drug development attended this meeting, which consisted of a diverse spectrum of educational sessions, clinical trial update presentations, keynote lectures, and closed meetings with ETCTN investigators (agenda).

Meeting Focus

Prioritize investigational agent selection and targeting, novel trial designs, and development and implementation of translational studies, as well as new therapeutic and imaging modalities

Meeting Highlights

Biomarker Supplement Session
DCTD staff and extramural investigators reviewed selected biomarker assay development projects that were funded through supplements to ETCTN grants to develop novel biomarker assays to incorporate into ETCTN trials.

New NCI Initiatives Session
DCTD staff presented information on resources available to the extramural scientific community through the National Clinical Laboratory Network and the ETCTN Interventional Radiology Working Group.

Radiopharmaceutical Session
DCTD staff presented details on several NCI initiatives, including the introduction of radiopharmaceutical agents into the ETCTN for clinical development, personalized radiation dosimetry for targeted radionuclide therapy, and molecular imaging in theranostics development.

CTEP-sponsored Early-phase Studies: Clinical Trial Sessions
A session on early-phase immunotherapy studies included a keynote lecture by Lillian Siu, MD, Princess Margaret Hospital, on immunotherapy and clinical trial design, and updates from eight CTEP-sponsored early-phase immunotherapy trials in a variety of cancers. A second session provided an additional four presentations on CTEP-sponsored early-phase trials in prostate cancer, refractory solid tumors, and pediatric tumors.

The Thirteenth Annual Michaele C. Christian Oncology Drug Development Award and Lectureship

This award, honoring a mid-career oncology investigator was given to Timothy Yap, MBBS, PhD, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Yap gave the annual lectureship: “Targeting the DNA Damage Response in Oncology.”

Jeff Moscow (L) and Michaele Christian (R) present the award to Timothy Yap.

Jeff Moscow (L) and Michaele Christian (R) present the award to Timothy Yap.

Read summaries of the 2016, 2017, and 2018 EDD meetings.