Dr. Glen Weiss, who holds joint appointments at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare, is the new Chief Medical Officer of an international lung cancer research consortium.

In this new position, Dr. Weiss heads the Cancer Research and Biostatistics-Clinical Trials Consortium (CRAB-CTC), a Seattle-based cooperative research network, created by a group of preeminent lung cancer investigators. It represents more than 10 institutes worldwide dedicated to funding and facilitating clinical trials, thereby providing lung cancer patients with newly developed therapeutics as quickly as possible.

"Our Consortium's explicit mission is to organize and accelerate the clinical development of new agents for the treatment of patients with lung cancer," said Dr. Weiss, an Assistant Professor of TGen's Cancer and Cell Biology Division. He also is Director of Thoracic Oncology at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials, a partnership between TGen and Scottsdale Healthcare that treats cancer patients with promising new drugs through clinical trials at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.

CRAB-CTC members include laboratory and clinical researchers in the U.S., Canada and China who share a passion for bringing new scientific advances to patients with lung cancer as rapidly as possible.

"Our Consortium provides a well-coordinated effort dedicated to rapidly translating research discoveries into new treatments and supportive care for patients with lung cancer," said Dr. Weiss.

Unlike similar research consortiums, CRAB-CTC is not affiliated or funded by government, but works directly with pharmaceutical firms to advance their compounds.

"CRAB's mission is to help conquer cancer. The network provided by the CRAB-CTC enables research oncologists to design and conduct innovative studies more quickly, in more places and with greater degree of opportunity for specific patient needs," said Dr. John Crowley, CEO of CRAB and lead statistician for multiple cancer clinical trials.

"What this will mean for patients, is that we will be able to offer patients new therapies much faster," Dr. Weiss said.

Source:
Steve Yozwiak
The Translational Genomics Research Institute