Brief Overview of NCI's National Clinical Trials Network

The NCI National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) was established for the conduct of large-scale, national, oncology treatment and advanced imaging clinical trials in an era of precision medicine. The NCTN's integrated and collaborative network infrastructure has allowed the Program to meet the challenges of evaluating emerging therapies within its broad investigator base drawn from NCI-designated Cancer Centers, the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Community Sites and Minority/Underserved Community Sites, and other academic and community hospitals and private practitioners across the U.S. and internationally.

The primary focus of the NCTN is the conduct of multi-center, late-phase, clinical treatment trials (i.e., randomized phase 2 and phase 3 trials) and investigation of new advanced imaging techniques; however, appropriate preliminary studies needed for development of potential definitive trials, especially umbrella/basket trials and rare tumor trials oriented to discovery, are also conducted when an extensive, national patient catchment area is required. For a detailed overview of the NCTN Program and its goals please click here.

• NCTN Guidelines (Only Part 1 Terms of Award Applies to 2024 NCTN Program RFAs) (PDF)
• NCI/DCTD Co-Authorship Guidelines for Overarching Publications of NCI-NCTN Group Collaborative Precision Medicine Initiatives (PDF)
• NCTN AYA Publications Task Force Guiding Principles on Manuscript Authorship (PDF)
• NCTN Group Meetings Schedule (PDF)

Links to 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcements for the NCTN Program: