Addressing the Cancer Burden in South America and the US Hispanic and Native American Populations through Clinical Trials

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SUMMARY The purpose of this conference is to support a high quality scientific forum addressing the cancer burden in South America with the aim of generating studies to address that burden, with results that are potentially generalizable and applicable to the US Hispanic and Native American populations. This underserved population will be significantly represented by investigators from the host country, from the rest of South America, and from Mexico and the US. Experts in the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials in oncology will join with healthcare professionals and institutional leaders to conduct a conference at a host country in South America, delivering a program that: (1) identifies the cancer burden in South America and explores what issues are unique to that continent, which generalize to the rest of Latin America, and which are also applicable to the US Hispanic and Native American population; (2) discusses the infrastructure for clinical trials in the region, the opportunities and challenges to collaborative trials with the US, and the current and possible future systems for multi‐ institution trials in the hemisphere; (3) shares ideas on innovative clinical trial design, conduct and analyses; (4) prioritizes possible collaborative projects and explores mechanisms for accomplishing those priorities; and (5) serves as a nidus for the development of actual clinical trials, the results of which should have important health implications for the hemisphere. Leaders of the National Cancer Institute in Chile have committed to support this conference. Three similar institutes (in Mexico, Peru and Colombia) have joined SWOG through the SWOG Latin American Initiative (SLAI) and have begun to collaborate with their US colleagues and counterparts, and Chile has recently expressed interest in joining SWOG. The goal of the research presented at the conference is to strengthen current collaborations and build novel initiatives in the areas of prevention, treatment and symptom management of common cancer problems in the region. We plan to uncover unique obstacles that limit oncology clinical trials and inspire novel solutions to overcome them, to fully understand the cancer burden in South America and how it relates to research programs in the US, and to help in the development of specific cancer clinical trials.