Ongoing Global Health Projects

Latin America and Caribbean Tobacco Control Community of Practice

Since Fall 2025, TCRB has been collaborating with CGH on a scoping review of tobacco control plans in the Latin America/Caribbean (LAC) region, including an examination of national cancer plans in the region, to support the establishment of a Tobacco Control Community of Practice (COP) for researchers in the LAC region using the existing CGH ECHO partnership. The project has two overarching goals: a) leverage the COP to bridge U.S. and LAC researchers/grantees for collaborative research; and b) expand sub-analyses of tobacco-related content in global cancer control plans, through existing CGH partnership with UICC. Carolyn Reyes-Guzman serves as the DCCPS lead and Margarita Correa-Mendez as the CGH lead on the effort, with Mark Parascandola and Mishka Cira as CGH collaborators. The project is supported by staff from CGH’s contract with Arbor Research who have carried out the scoping review.

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Global Health Research and Training Initiatives

UICC Technical Fellowship Program

NCI is partnering with Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to support the 2026 UICC Technical Fellowship Program. This unique training opportunity is designed for early-career investigators and program implementers interested in the transfer of cancer control knowledge, skills and techniques through short-term international visits, from two weeks to two months. Applications due June 4, 2026. UICC Technical Fellowships - NCI.

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Noteworthy Reports

Uniting science and patient voices: SISAQOL-IMI consortium releases PRO standards and tools

SISAQOL-IMI (Setting International Standards of Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints in Cancer Clinical Trials – IMI), an international, multidisciplinary consortium co-led by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and Boehringer Ingelheim and formed under the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), has NCI representation from Sandy Mitchell and Ashley Smith among its 41 stakeholders from more than 15 countries. The consortium published a pivotal paper entitled “SISAQOL-IMI consensus-based guidelines to design, analyse, interpret, and present patient-reported outcomes in cancer clinical trials,” in November 2025 and released online the SISAQOL-IMI online materials that can be accessed here.

Though the current iteration began in 2021, its origin and HDRP’s work with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) began in 2016. The goal was to develop guidelines to support high-quality, clear, and consistent analysis and reporting of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in cancer clinical trials and to meet the needs of various stakeholders (regulators, health technology assessment bodies, payers, clinicians, methodological and applied statisticians, PRO experts, industry, and patient organizations).

Congratulations to the consortium on this massive undertaking, which should have national and international implications for how the field analyzes and reports PRO data in cancer clinical trials. Read the full press release.

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Meeting Reports

Swiss Implementation Science IMPACT Conference

On February 13, 2026, David Chambers delivered the closing keynote at the 4th Swiss Implementation Science Conference: True IMPACT—Delivering Innovation for Patients and the Public. The talk, “Strategic Directions for the Future of Implementation Science,” shared DCCPS and NIH efforts to expand the field to include more work on scale-up, sustainment, adaptation, and de-implementation, as well as reflections on training, capacity building, and collaboration.