Stories of SWOG Accrual Stars

But there are many other stories of SWOG accrual stars – both sites and individuals. Many are quite inspiring!

Some of these accrual heroes seem superhuman: 

Dr. Siamak Daneshmand enrolled 124 patients to the intervention step of our S1011 bladder cancer surgical trial (results were reported in NEJM last fall). This count represents the lion’s share of the 153 patients enrolled by his home institution, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, S1011’s top-accruing site.

Total enrollment on S1011 was 617, so 153 represents almost one of every four patients enrolled to this nationwide trial (and three times the number enrolled by S1011’s next highest accruing site).

USC Norris also appeared at the top of the enrollment list, again all by its lonesome, on S1600 – a symptom management trial of immune-modulating nutrition (initial results were presented at ASCO 2024). Once again, Dr. Daneshmand led the way, enrolling 73 of Norris’s 78 S1600 patients (total enrollment to the study was 203).  

Also making an impressive showing on this trial was the University of Kansas Cancer Center (home to S1600 study chair Dr. Jill Hamilton-Reeves), enrolling 50 patients for a second place finish well ahead of the third-place institution, which enrolled 16.

While it’s not unusual for the study chair’s home institution to be among the enrollment leaders on a trial, some study chairs are particular standouts.

SWOG’s S1216 prostate cancer trial enrolled 1,313 participants. The top accruing institution was the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute, which enrolled 106 (the second place institution enrolled 49).

Of those 106 Huntsman patients, S1216 study chair Dr. Neeraj Agarwal was enrolling investigator for 100, which means he chalked up more than twice as many S1216 enrollments as any other single institution! 

An energetic study chair can make an even greater enrollment impact on a smaller study.

Our S2000 phase II study in melanoma (initial results were presented at ASCO in June) enrolled 37 patients. About one-half of those (18 patients) were enrolled by Moffitt Cancer Center, with most of those (14) enrolled by S2000 study chair Dr. Zeynep Eroglu.  

On the ongoing S1931 renal cancer study, the enrollment leader is the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, with 28 patients accrued, all enrolled by study co-chair Dr. Ulka Vaishampayan, with most registered by associate Nahid Hemati-Schroat, MS.

To date, Dr. Vaishampayan has enrolled more patients to S1931 than the next two highest accruing sites combined.

I’ve highlighted study chairs and superstar investigators, but of course every trial enrollment is a group project, and having a site team focused on specific trials that are the right fit for the site’s collective strengths is a winning strategy for many institutions.

Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals – Butterworth Hospital provides a great example. Part of the Cancer Research Consortium of West Michigan (CRCWM) NCORP, the site decided to focus resources on the S2015 MelMarT melanoma trial.

Led by Dr. Gerald Wright, Butterworth engaged its clinical team with the CRCWM research team to streamline a process that would eventually make it the runaway leader on MelMarT. The 100 patients it registered to the study – 91 of them enrolled by Dr. Wright – was almost twice the total of the next highest accruing institution. 

Another site that seems to have identified the right trial and run with it is Bon Secours St Francis Medical Center, in Midlothian, Virginia (part of the Southeast Clinical Oncology Research Consortium NCORP).

For Bon Secours, the right trial was our S1714 observational study of peripheral neuropathy (results were reported at ASCO 2024). The site far outstripped its competitors, accruing 105 participants, all enrolled by Dr. William Irvin. The second place site on S1714 enrolled 68. 

Some sites seem to be overrepresented in our stories of accrual standouts, such as Moffitt Cancer Center.

Moffitt was the runaway accrual winner on S2302 Pragmatica-Lung, enrolling 49 patients. More than one-half of those 49 were enrolled by Moffitt’s Dr. Tawee Tanvetyanon, and more than three-fourths were registered by associate Jordanyne Fye, MPH.

The Pragmatica trial opened widely and enrolled rapidly – 293 sites registered at least one patient to the study, an average of less than three patients per site. The fact that Moffitt enrolled 49 (the next-highest count for an institution was 18) is remarkable.

Of note: our lung committee chair, Dr. Jhanelle Gray, is chair of thoracic oncology at Moffitt. Apparently, it’s not only study chairs whose championing of a trial can make all the difference.

Of course, Moffitt has demonstrated its prowess beyond lung cancer as well:

• On our S1712 phase II trial in chronic myeloid leukemia (results were presented in Prague last fall), Moffitt’s enrollment of 16 patients – 15 of those enrolled by Dr. Kendra Sweet (the original study chair for S1712) – was more than double the enrollment of the trial’s second-place institution.
• On our S1512 phase II study in desmoplastic melanoma (latest results were just published in Nature Medicine), Moffitt enrolled 19 of the trial’s 57 participants, again about twice as many as the next highest accruing site. Notably, 15 of Moffitt’s 19 were enrolled by Dr. Zeynep Eroglu.
• And speaking (again) of Dr. Eroglu, my story above of her impressive accrual performance on S2000 is, of course, also a Moffitt story.

Some trials appear to foster competition between a pair of champions who far outstrip all others. On our S2205 ICE COMPRESS trial, Baptist Health Lexington has now enrolled 79 (52 of those by Dr. Amy Schell), while The Valley Hospital – Luckow Pavillion is not far behind, with an enrollment of 70 patients (Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky has enrolled 54 of those). Enrollment at the third-place site is 37.

We have many stories of awe-inspiring efforts by individuals and teams that have generated standout enrollment numbers. I could tell only a few of them here. If you have other SWOG accrual stories you think need to be told, please let me know!