The Duke University - Duke Cancer Institute National Clinical Trials Network LAPS (UG1) Support Grant

The mission of the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) is to “Discover, Develop, and Deliver the Future of Cancer Care Now”. A critical component of this mission is an institutional commitment to practice-changing clinical research. As such, Duke has prioritized and will continue to prioritize development of i.) institutional leadership and organizational capacity to support National Clinical Network (NCTN) efforts, ii.) scientific leadership for both trial development and on-going programmatic leadership within the NCTN and iii.) infrastructure to support a robust and growing accrual program for NCTN trials. To fully contribute the academic and infrastructural resources at the DCI and more broadly at Duke University toward realizing clinical advances in cancer care and the shared missions of the DCI and the NCTN, we are applying to continue our participation as Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS). This award will further Duke's leadership and robust accrual to NCI-funded clinical trials, specifically multicenter clinical treatment and imaging trials across a broad range of cancers and therapeutic modalities as part of NCI’s overall clinical research program. An important focus will be an emphasis on trials in special populations, including patients with uncommon molecular alterations or rare tumors. To achieve these goals, we propose to provide senior-level clinical trial expertise, mentor future clinical trial leaders, and provide substantial institutional support. The current proposed leadership team are established investigators who provide complementary skills to build an environment which supports Duke investigator contributions to the NCTN. DCI will continue to provide robust complementary resources, investing in the success of this research. We further propose to continue scientific and organizational leadership for NCTN clinical trials and NCTN scientific activities. Duke investigators will continue to provide leadership across the 4 groups of the NCTN, and across all cancer types for trial design and conduct. A particular focus will be cross-NCTN and NCI initiatives. Finally, for this cycle we will seek to enhance accrual to NCTN trials through our 5-point Plan which includes further expanding NCTN trials into the rapidly growing DCI integral site network, to fully offer trial access in our region. At Duke, this grant will foster multidisciplinary collaborations and develop the next generation of clinical investigators dedicated to cancer research. The support provided to Duke as a LAPS will be complemented with further significant scientific and clinical resources of the DCI to provide robust participation in this nationally established cancer clinical trial program toward the goals of advancing cancer care and diminishing suffering from cancer. Project Number: 2UG1CA233253-07 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Cancer Institute (NCI) | Principal Investigator: Alexandra Thomas (+1 co-PI) | Institution: DUKE UNIVERSITY, DURHAM, NC | Award Amount: $634,423 | Activity Code: UG1 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 CDPT-R (55)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11291487