Expanding access to perioperative and repurposed drug trials in melanoma and other solid tumors

Michael Lowe, MD, MA, Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the Melanoma Program at Winship Cancer Institute, seeks additional support to advance the institution’s participation in NCI-sponsored clinical trials. His ongoing contributions, trajectory of trial participation, emerging leadership, and exciting ideas make him an indispensable asset to Winship’s NTCN participation. Dr. Lowe is quickly become a nationally recognized leader in surgical oncology and cutaneous malignancies, and he is driven to bring as many concepts as possible through the NCI cooperative group mechanism. He is a member of the Winship Clinical Council and Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee and serves as the Director the Melanoma Program and Chair of the Melanoma Working Group. He is Clinical Director of the Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine, which sponsors clinical trials investigating repurposed drugs in cancer. He is a member of the ECOG-ACRIN Melanoma and Surgical Committees and serves as the ECOG-ACRIN liaison to the SWOG Melanoma Committee and the liaison of the Melanoma Committee to the Surgery Committee. He is surgical chair of three NCTN clinical trials (EA6183, EA6212, and S1801) and is the ECOG champion of S2015. He serves as site PI of S1801 and S2015 and is one of the highest NCTN enrolling investigators at Winship. He is also site PI of numerous investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials. Dr. Lowe has established himself as a dedicated researcher with a special interest in advancing concepts through the NCTN cooperative group mechanism. Over the next five years with support from this grant, he plans to increase institutional participation in NCI-supported research and personally propose and develop two specific trials. He will advocate for less traditional clinical trialists like surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiologists, and dermatologists to participate in the NCTN trials. Dr. Lowe will also strongly advocate to NCTN leadership to implement a more systemic process of patient engagement in the design of NCI-supported trials, including patient-centered focus groups and/or surveys designed to assess the patient’s perspective on the trial design. Given his experience in repurposed drug trials, he will advocate for disease-specific repurposed drug trials to be opened in the NTCN committees and work towards developing a Repurposed Drug Subcommittee within NTCN. Lastly Dr. Lowe will work with Winship CTO leadership to identify causes of NCTN trial opening delays and work on solutions to resolve them. He is motivated to make an even bigger impact through NCI-supported research, and this award would make a considerable impact on his ability to do so. His passion for improving the lives of patients through clinical research make his potential capabilities limitless, and providing the additional time provided by this award will help maximize that potential. Project Number: 1R50CA292121-01A1 | Fiscal Year: 2025 | NIH Institute/Center: National Cancer Institute (NCI) | Principal Investigator: Michael Lowe | Institution: EMORY UNIVERSITY, ATLANTA, GA | Award Amount: $83,925 | Activity Code: R50 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZCA1 SRB-5 (M1)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11225810