Symptom Management & HRQOL Steering Committee (SxQOL)

In January 2004, the Director of the NCI established the Clinical Trials Working Group (CTWG) to advise the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) on ways in which to restructure the national clinical trials enterprise to realize the promise of molecular medicine for advancing oncology clinical practice in the 21st century. The CTWG published their final report (PDF) in June 2005, with one of its priorities to develop a funding and prioritization process to ensure that quality of life studies could be conducted in a timely manner in association with clinical trials.

In response to the CTWG report, the NCI has developed Steering Committees to implement the initiatives. The Symptom Management and Health-Related Quality of Life (SxQOL) Steering Committee was set up to prioritize and review the symptom management clinical trials conducted through NCI's Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) Research Bases and to review and prioritize the secondary quality of life endpoints in the phase III Cooperative Group cancer treatment trials. In addition, the SxQOL will identify critical research questions and unmet needs for state of the science meetings.

Outcomes Research staff sit as voting members of the SxQOL Steering Committee. The first face-to-face meeting of the SxQOL Steering Committee was held on July 23, 2007 in Rockville, MD.