Leading NCI Clinical Trials Network research nationally and at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center

This R50 application will support the activities of Dr. Alex Herrera as a Research Specialist (Clinician Scientist) promoting and supporting National Cancer Institute (NCI)-sponsored clinical trials network (CTN) research, both nationally and within the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center (COHCCC). Dr. Herrera is a clinical and translational lymphoma investigator who leads a clinical trial program focused on developing novel therapies for the treatment of Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Within the COHCCC, Dr. Herrera is the Associate Medical Director of the Clinical Trials Office and Briskin Center for Clinical Research, Chief of the Lymphoma Division within the Department of Hematology, and Co-Leader of the Lymphoma Disease Team. He is a national leader in the NCI clinical trial networks as a member of the SWOG Lymphoma Committee Working Group and the NCI Lymphoma Steering Committee and serves as the study chair/principal investigator or translational medicine chair of several clinical trials in the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) and Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN). Notably he is the study chair of the groundbreaking SWOG S1826 trial, the largest Hodgkin lymphoma trial conducted in the NCTN and the first NCTN collaboration between the Hodgkin adult and pediatric cooperative groups, whose outcome is poised to change the standard of care. He is also a national leader in the mentorship of junior clinical faculty, with a focus on reducing barriers to clinical trial enrollment. Through this R50 award, Dr. Herrera will spearhead efforts to increase COHCCC NCI-sponsored CTN research activities by (1) building specialized clinical research infrastructure to manage NCI-CTN trials and grow a multidisciplinary institutional NCTN leadership team; (2) lead expansion and integration of the COHCCC clinical research infrastructure across the regional/national enterprise to increase NCTN/ETCTN trial enrollment; (3) reduce barriers to clinical trial access for patients from COH network sites, in order to enhance enrollment to NCTN/ETCTN trials. This application will also support expansion of Dr. Herrera’s efforts toward setting the national NCI-sponsored clinical trial network’s research agenda for lymphoma, serving as the SWOG Lymphoma adolescent young adult (AYA) liaison, mentoring junior investigators designing NCTN and ETCTN trials, and conducting practice-changing lymphoma clinical research in the NCTN/ETCTN. This R50 award will allow Dr. Herrera to unify his research agenda on a theme of driving and expanding internal