NCI Launches Exceptional Responders Iniatitive (10/2014)

The Exceptional Responders Initiative is a study to investigate the molecular factors of tumors associated with exceptional treatment responses of cancer patients to drug therapies. Scientists will attempt to identify the molecular features of tumors that predict whether or not a particular drug or class of drugs will be beneficial. Investigators will examine tumor specimens from patients in clinical trials who achieved an exceptional response relative to other trial participants, or other patients who achieved an exceptional and unexpected response to a non-investigational therapy.

In this study, some of the tissue and clinical data from exceptional responders will be obtained from NCI-supported trials as well as potentially other clinical trials. The remaining samples and data will come from standard therapy settings, such as community practice, where there are reliable outcome data, and from pharmaceutical industry trials or other sources.

The Cancer Diagnosis Program’s Associate Director, Dr. Barbara Conley, is the co-lead investigator for this study.

For more information, please visit:

The Study’s Clinical Trial page
The Division of Cancer Treatment an Diagnosis’s Precision Medicine Page