Cancer and Leukemia Group B Cancer Control and Health Outcomes Committee: Origins and Accomplishments ElectraD.Paskett, 1 DeborahSchrag, 2 AliceKornblith, 3 ElizabethB.Lamont, 4 JaneC.Weeks, 3 JamesR.Marshall, 5 CharlesShapiro, 1 andJimmieHolland 2 Abstract CancerandLeukemiaGroupB(CALGB)hasconductedprotocolsincancerpreventionandcon- trol, psycho-oncology, and health services for many years. Significant findings from the studies haveemergedandhavehelpedshapethepracticeofmedicineandthedirectionoffutureresearch intheseareas.ThisarticledescribestheoriginsoftheCancerControlandHealthOutcomesCom- mittee within CALGBandbriefly describes significant findings and future work.The success CALGBhashadwithpsycho-oncologyandhealthservicesresearchhaspavedthewayforother cooperativegroupstodevelopthesemodalities.Cancercontrolresearchisgrowingandcontin- uestogathermomentum.Thistypeofresearchisintegraltoprovidingqualitycaretopatientsand healthypopulations. In 1987, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) mandated the inclusion of cancer control research within NCI-funded cancer centers and the Community Clinical Oncology Program. This mandate required that Community Clinical Oncology Program research bases provide protocols for Community Clinical Oncology Program institutions to include cancer control research. In April 1987, the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) established a new modality, the Cancer Control Sciences Committee, to initiate cancer control research within the Group. The Psycho-oncology Committee, formed in 1976, and the Clinical Economics Committee, formed in 1994, merged with the Cancer Control and Clinical Economics Committees in 2001 to create the Cancer Control and Health Outcomes (CCHO) Committee. This article briefly describes how cancer control is integrated into the CALGB and highlights select accomplishments of the Group in this research discipline. Origins of the Cancer Control Committee Cancer Control Sciences Committee. Under the leadership of Dr. Vincent Vinciguerra, the Cancer Control Sciences Committee (CSCC) focused on smoking cessation, cancer screening and prevention of colorectal, prostate, ovarian, and lung cancers, supportive care research, and research that recognized the needs of minority and elderly populations. The first protocols focused on breast cancer screening, symptom control, and smoking cessation. In 1992, the first phase III randomized prevention trial, CALGB 9270, ‘‘Aspirin for the Prevention of Colorectal Adenomas in Patients with Previous Colorectal Cancer,’’ was proposed. In 1996, Dr. Electra D. Paskett, an epidemiologist from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, replaced Dr. Vinciguerra as chair of the committee. From 1996 to 2001, the Cancer Control Sciences Committee continued to focus on two areas defined as cancer control-cancer prevention and symptom control. Psycho-oncology Committee. In 1976, CALGB formed the Psychiatry Committee under the leadership of Dr. Jimmie Holland. Through the Committee’s collaboration with the disease committees, the CALGB became the first cooperative group to report quality of life (QOL) as an outcome variable in clinical trials. The advantages in studying psychosocial variables within a cooperative group were several large patient popula- tions, greater diversity due to different geographic locations, and control of medical and treatment variables by the treatment protocols. From 1976 to 2001, Dr. Holland, with the support of Dr. Alice Kornblith, led a robust committee that conducted QOL studies as part of CALGB treatment trials, evaluated psychological distress in cancer patients and their caregivers, developed interventions to reduce such distress, and examined the medical, psychological, and social consequences of cancer survivorship. Clinical economics. Responding to changes in the nature and financing of health care in the 1970s, social scientists developed a series of related approaches to quantifying cost per unit health benefit (1). They realized that the existing clinical trial infrastructure could be used to collect cancer therapy cost data in parallel with collection of the traditional measures of clinical benefit in clinical trials (e.g., time to progression and overall survival). Active participation of the NCI cooperative groups in economic studies dates from 1994 when NCI provided funding for trials of minimally invasive surgery and stipulated that these trials had to include assessments of costs in addition to QOL. In this context, the CALGB created the Clinical Economics Working Group in August 1994 under the Authors’ Affiliations: 1 Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; 2 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NewYork, New York; 3 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; 4 Institute forTechnologyAssessment, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts; and 5 RoswellParkCancerInstitute,Buffalo,NewYork Requests for reprints: Electra D. Paskett, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio StateUniversity,A356StarlingLovingHall,320West10thAvenue,Columbus,OH 43210.Phone:614-293-3917;Fax:614-293-5611. F 2006AmericanAssociationforCancerResearch. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-9006 www.aacrjournals.org Clin Cancer Res 2006;12(11Suppl) June 1, 2006 3601s