Fall 2026 SWOG Group Meeting

​Disclaimer for Recording Open Group Meeting Sessions

By participating in the open sessions, you acknowledge and agree to the following: (1) The meetings will be recorded for documentation and reference purposes, (2) Participants may be recorded during the meeting, including their audio and video, (3) The recordings will be made available online for SWOG members to view after the meeting, (4) Additionally, the recordings may be used and posted online as part of enduring training materials, (5) If you do not wish to be recorded, please inform the meeting organizer (meetings@swog.org) before the session begins or disconnect from the meeting.

Your participation implies consent to these terms.

• Meeting Agenda Book (available mid September)
• Meeting Mobile App with meeting details will be available for download to your phone or tablet in September. App content will also be accessible via a standard web browser (no app installation needed).
• Continuing Medical Education credits are no longer offered for the SWOG group meetings. 
• Exhibitor and Sponsorship Information: Exhibits will be held October 8-10 from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. If you are interested in exhibiting or sponsorship opportunities, please view our prospectus here.
• Pharmaceutical Partners: We look forward to your participation at the SWOG 2026 Fall Group Meeting! To ensure we can maintain meetings of the highest caliber, pharma partners attending in person and not specifically invited to present as part of the group meeting agenda will be required to pay a per-person registration fee of $300.
  
  Please visit The Hope Foundation’s Group Meeting Registration Payment Page to make any necessary payments.  Payment can be made via credit card or check.  Questions can be directed to info@thehopefoundation.org.

Posting the meeting to social media? Please use the hashtag #swogonc.
 

Group Meeting and Travel Logistics

Airfare

Individuals are responsible for making their own flight arrangements to and from the Group Meeting.

Hotel Reservations

You can reserve your hotel room at the Hyatt Regency online or by calling 312-565-1234. When calling, ask for the SWOG room block. The Group room rate is $299 plus tax. The cut-off date for making reservations is September 5, 2026. Any reservations after that time will be based on rate and space availability. To cancel or change your Hyatt reservation, call 312-565-1234.

 

Need Special Accommodations?

If you need special arrangements or accommodations to fully participate in all Group Meeting functions, please contact the meetings manager at 210-614-8808, ext. 1009 after you register online.

​Group Meeting Funding/Travel Support

SWOG and The Hope Foundation provide funding to support travel for member CRAs and nurses and Modality and Discipline Investigators to attend the group’s semi-annual meetings. Committee funds are also available through The Hope Foundation to help support committee efforts at the group meetings that are not funded via the NCORP or NCTN grants.

For specific details and links to apply, please visit the Funding and Travel Support page: Group Meeting Funding/Travel Support | SWOG

Group Meeting Event Information

Plenary Session

This fall's plenary session will take place Friday, October 9, 2026, 2 – 4 pm CT, at the Chicago Hyatt Regency, and everywhere online:

SWOG and the NCI: Advancing the Research Cooperative Groups Do Best (Part I)

Federally sponsored cancer trials are more likely than industry trials to test non-treatment interventions, multi-modality regimens, or dose de-escalation strategies; to focus on optimizing care delivery; or to address rare or pediatric cancers. These are the trials cooperative groups do best. At the fall plenary, we’ll explore how we can become even better at what we do best as we move into new NCTN and NCORP grant cycles.

• SWOG Updates and Transitions
  Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS, and Primo (Lucky) N. Lara, Jr., MD
  Group Chairs, SWOG Cancer Research Network
   
• Vision for NCORP as We Approach a New Grant Cycle
  Brandy Heckman-Stoddard, PhD, MPH
  Director, NCI Community Oncology Research Program
  Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute
   
• The Role of Federally Sponsored Clinical Trials in Cancer Research
  Joseph M. Unger, PhD
  SWOG Statistics and Data Management Center
  Professor, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
   
• Can Observational Real World Evidence Replace Randomized Clinical Trials?
  Steven Piantadosi, MD, PhD
  Director, Data Innovation Lab & Associate Group Chair for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation
  Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology
   
• Pragmatic Trials in Oncology: Lessons from TrACER (S1415CD)
  Scott Ramsey, MD, PhD
  Director, Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research
  Fred Hutch Cancer Center
   
• Pragmatic Trials in Oncology: Lessons from Pragmatica-Lung (S2302)
  Karen Reckamp, MD
  Director, Division of Medical Oncology Professor, Department of Medicine
  Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University
   
• Statistical Considerations for the Design of Pragmatic Trials
  Mary W. Redman, PhD
  SWOG Statistics and Data Management Center
  Professor, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
   
• Panel Discussion
  All Presenters

 

NCORP Research Base Clinical Trials Workshop

Open to site staff and investigators at all sites (not just NCORP sites), the workshop centers on general interest areas related to conducting clinical trials in the NCORP Research Base committees in Cancer Care Delivery; Palliative Care; Prevention, Screening, & Surveillance; and Symptom Management & Survivorship.

General Session: 8:00 to ~9:30 am, hybrid session (in-person and online) with presentations

Breakout Discussion Sessions: ~9:30 – 11:00 am, in-person only

• Facilitated informal discussion sessions are for information-sharing amongst attendees. We invite all to come and share your ideas and strategies for conducting studies. 

Sponsored by The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research.
(Society of Clinical Research Associates (SOCRA) continuing education credit is available.)

The Site Operations meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 8, 1:00 - 2:30 pm CT. 

It takes a village to lead research sites and make it possible for participants to enroll on trials. This special perspective is the focus of Site Operations, a subcommittee of the Oncology Research Professionals (ORP) Committee. A variety of practical topics will be discussed, including:

• SWOG statistical and operations updates
• NCI changes and new information
• SWOG quality assurance topics and questions

This meeting is open to everyone and provides an opportunity to hear updates and ask questions.  Please join us!

 

Jeri & Noboru Oishi Symposium

The Jeri & Noboru Oishi Symposium, held at every group meeting with support from The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research, is a key forum for continuing education of SWOG research site staff, nurses, clinical research associates, and other oncology research professionals, providing updates on group procedures and essential information about research data submission, oversight, monitoring expectations, quality improvement initiatives, flagship clinical trials, and much more. This fall's Oishi Symposium will be held Friday, October 9, 9:00 - 11:30 am CT. Information on topics and speakers will be posted here soon.

Oncology Research Professionals Open Forum

The ORP Open Forum is set for Friday, October 9, 12:00 - 1:30 pm CT. Please join us in-person to discuss topics in a small group setting.  Rotate among four 20-minute round table sessions of your choice to learn more about conducting SWOG trials, mitigating challenges, and implementing strategies with your facilitator and tablemates.

Please note we encourage in-person attendance as there will be no remote meeting links for this forum. Although recordings of the round table discussions will not be made, we will post handouts and facilitator contact details for each table topic to the SWOG website after the Group Meeting.

This meeting is open to everyone and provides an opportunity to hear updates and ask questions.  Please join us!

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