NCTN: NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network
The NCI's National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) was established from NCI's longstanding Cooperative Group program for the conduct of large-scale, national, oncology treatment and advanced imaging clinical trials in an era of precision medicine.
The NCTN's integrated and collaborative network infrastructure has allowed the Program to meet the challenges of evaluating emerging therapies within its broad investigator base drawn from NCI-designated Cancer Centers, the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Community Sites, and other academic and community hospitals and private practitioners across the U.S. and internationally. Learn more about the network's structure on the NCTN Organization page.
About the NCTN
A recent analysis by the US adult NCTN Groups found:
- They published results from 162 positive phase 3 randomized trials between 1980 and 2018.
- More than 85% of these trials helped change cancer care guidelines.
- These trials generated an estimated 14.2 million additional life years for patients through 2020.
- The federal ROI was $326 dollars per life-year gained.
The primary focus of the NCTN is the conduct of multi-center, late-phase, clinical treatment and advanced imaging trials. In addition to late-phase trials, appropriate preliminary studies needed for development of potential definitive trials are also conducted within the NCTN when a national patient catchment area is required.
Many NCTN trials are conducted under collaborative agreements with industry partners, including NCTN's precision medicine trials. NCTN's national network has been able to screen large numbers of patients to identify those whose tumors have molecular features that may be responsive to new targeted treatments and approaches.
NCTN's Contribution to Cancer Research
The NCTN program is intended to complement, not duplicate, research conducted by the private sector. The NCTN's portfolio of trials addresses many questions not well supported in a commercial environment, including:
- Radiotherapy, surgery, and multimodality treatment trials,
- De-escalation trials evaluating whether less treatment can produce disease outcomes that are not worse than more treatment (i.e., that are non-inferior),
- Trials studying the sequence of different agents and other treatments,
- Trials requiring an extensive, national patient catchment area,
- Trials in special populations, such as children, adolescents, and young adults, and
- Rare cancer trials.
NCTN Clinical Trial Specimens and Data Sharing
NCTN Clinical Trial Specimen Sharing
Investigators can access an inventory of over 2 million clinical trial biospecimens with detailed clinical and outcome data through NCI’s NCTN Navigator.
Proposals to use these specimens are reviewed and approved by the Core Correlative Sciences Committee (CCSC).
Investigators interested in accessing specimens from completed NCTN trials that are not listed in Navigator can contact the NCTN Group that led the trial to find out if specimens are available.
NCTN Clinical Trial Data Sharing
Data from NCTN phase 3 clinical trials that have completed and reported out are available through the NCTN/NCORP Data Archive.
Investigators interested in data from completed NCTN trials that are not listed in the Data Archive can contact the NCTN Group that led the trial to find out how to submit a data request.
NCTN Trials by Cancer Type
View PDFs showing the latest portfolio of CTEP-supported cancer clinical trials open to enrollment in the NCTN (updated monthly).
Download a single PDF with all NCTN trials by disease.
Adult Trials
NCTN Grant Requests for Application (RFAs)
The NCTN grants overseen by CTEP are re-competed at the same time. The current project period for these grants began March 2019 and will continue through February 2026. CTEP anticipates the next period period will begin March 2026 and continue through February 2032. Applications for the next project period were due in February 2025. The closed RFAs for the anticipated new project period are included in the table below.
| NCTN Grant RFA Title | Anticipated Project Period 3: (RFAs expired February 2025) |
|---|---|
| Network Group Operations Centers (U10) | RFA-CA-24-030 |
| Network Group Statistics and Data Management Centers (U10) | RFA-CA-24-031 |
| Canadian Collaborating Clinical Trials Network (U10) | RFA-CA-24-032 |
| Network Lead Academic Participating Sites (UG1) | RFA-CA-24-033 |
| Network Radiotherapy and Imaging Core Services Center (U24) | RFA-CA-24-034 |
| Network Group Integrated Translational Science Centers (UG1) | RFA-CA-24-035 |
NCTN Guidelines and Policies
The NCTN Guidelines Document (only Part 1 Terms of Award) describes the goals and expectations for NCTN applicants, investigators, reviewers, and NIH support staff involved in the Network's conduct.
In addition to the NCTN Guidelines, the NCTN's work is guided by:
- Relevant CTEP Documents and Memos, the NCTN Auditing Guidelines, and the CTEP Investigator's Handbook
- Requests for Applications (RFAs) for the current NCTN Project Period
- Special terms of award included in NCTN grantee Notices of Award documents
These are in addition to, and not in lieu of, otherwise applicable government guidelines, regulations, and grant policies.
Resources for NCTN Groups and Sites
- Download the current NCTN Group Meetings Schedule.
- View CTEP resources for the NCTN and other NCI-supported clinical trials networks.