16th Annual AACI CRI Meeting: Day 2 Overview

Thank you to the cancer center clinical trial leaders and other colleagues who participated today in the 16th Annual AACI CRI Meeting.

AACI President Dr. Robert A. Winn, director of VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, provided an inspiring and energizing opening to Day 2 of the CRI annual meeting. His address highlighted AACI members' common goal: to end cancer for all. As he said, cancer centers are "one team" with "one fight."

Dr. Robert A. Winn delivers the AACI President's Address

Dr. Winn is a tough act to follow but Dr. Patricia LoRusso rose to the occasion. Dr. LoRusso, of Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine, shared the inspiring story of her path to clinical research – an encore performance of her deeply moving 2023 AACI/AACF Annual Meeting Distinguished Scientist keynote. Her presentation highlighted the impact of family and mentor relationships on her professional success and personal growth. Dr. LoRusso also emphasized the importance of collective action, noting, “We are not going to win this battle if we individualize it.” She added, “I am just the conductor of the orchestra. There are phenomenal instrumentalists I work with every day. It’s my job to bring them together to make beautiful music.”

Keynote presenter Dr Patricia LoRusso with CRI Steering Committee Chair Dr. Thomas George

Dr. Margaret Kasner, of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson, moderated a session on clinical trial navigators and their ability to bridge the gap between clinical research and clinical care. Panelists were Loren Bryant, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Ed Bentlyewski, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center; and Maria Davenport, University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Breakout sessions allowed attendees a closer look at topics including community outreach and diversity, equity, and inclusion; network operations, decentralized trials, and multi-site research; resource management and finance; quality assurance and remote monitoring and auditing; trial recruitment and study conduct (IITs); trial start-up, activation, regulatory, and protocol development; and training, career development, and staff retention.

Following the breakout sessions was a panel discussion which detailed how acuity-based staffing tools can improve workload management. Moderated by Matthew Kovak of UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the session featured presentations by Lindsey Behlman, Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania; Jose Garcia, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami; and Erin Williams, Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center.

To close out the day, the top three abstracts of 2024 were presented. AACI received a record-breaking 153 abstracts this year, each highlighting important research in the field of clinical research. The winning abstracts were presented by Alec Shultz, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Iowa; Whitney Cunningham, UK Markey Cancer Center; and Katelyn Gauger, Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center. This discussion was moderated by Dr. Thomas George of the University of Florida Health Cancer Center.

Tomorrow will be the final day of the CRI meeting. Sessions will address the PRMS/IRB review process and clinical protocol and data management through a community outreach and engagement lens. To stay up to date on the meeting, please follow us on X and use the meeting hashtag #CRI2024 in your social media posts.