Intergroup collaboration in ovarian cancer: the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup (GCIG)

Randomized clinical trials are considered the definitive source of evidence for guiding decisions in clinical practise. In patients with ovarian cancer many of the randomized trials from the 1970s and 1980s did not have the statistical power to detect realistic and clinically important differences. Therefore, evolution of so-called "optimal therapy" has been rather slow and some important questions have gone unanswered. In order to overcome this challenge, representatives of different Cooperative Groups started an Ovarian Cancer Trials Intergroup Network in the mid 1990s, as a vehicle to develop future trial collaboration and as a mechanism for communication about strategic directions of phase I/II trials within individual Groups. In 1997 this network became more formalized, going beyond ovarian cancer as a single focus, and the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup (GCIG) was created. At present GCIG includes representatives of 12 Cooperative Groups and the NCI-US, and functions as a forum for development of global trial collaborations, which hopefully will answer important questions in a more timely fashion and make them more rapidly available for the oncologic community.