NCTN: NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network

NCI's National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) is a collection of organizations and clinicians that coordinates and supports cancer clinical trials at more than 2,200 sites across the United States, Canada, and internationally. NCTN provides the infrastructure for NCI-funded treatment and primary advanced imaging trials to improve the lives of people with cancer.

NCTN Clinical Trials

NCTN clinical trials help to establish new standards of care, set the stage for approval of new therapies by the Food and Drug Administration, test new treatment approaches, and validate new biomarkers.

Network Groups and Their Support Components

The network's organizational structure is ideal for screening large numbers of patients to find those whose tumors exhibit the molecular features that give them the best chance of responding to new, targeted treatments. For physicians and their patients, a menu of important trials are widely available throughout the country, in large cities and small communities alike. NCTN offers access to the best approaches available for many common and, increasingly, even rare cancers.

Network Groups

The NCTN consists of four adult groups and one large group focused solely on childhood cancers. The structure also includes a Canadian Collaborating Clinical Trials Network. The five US Network Groups are:

The Canadian Network Group is:

Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG)

Lead Academic Participating Sites (LAPS)

Thirty-two US academic institutions have been awarded a Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS) grant, which is a source of funding created especially for the NCTN. The sites are academic research institutions with fellowship training programs, and most of the awardees are NCI-Designated Cancer Centers. To receive these awards, sites had to demonstrate their ability to enroll high numbers of patients onto NCTN trials, as well as scientific leadership in the design and conduct of clinical trials.

Community Hospitals and Medical Centers

Many other investigators at community hospitals and medical centers can participate in NCTN trials, even if they are at sites that did not receive a LAPS award. These sites, as well as a number of international sites, either receive research reimbursement directly from one of the network groups with which they are affiliated or they receive awards from the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP).