Greetings,

Amidst the end-of-year onslaught of well deserving messages, it’s hard to make space for yet another one…I am doing so because SWOG research and your research matters. It matters for patients, for the research community, and for the notable progress in cancer treatment and prevention led by Network Group trials.  It’s been a busy year with substantial impact on the field – and that matters. Hope matters.

2014 brought new and evolving collaborations as both SWOG and The Hope Foundation navigated the first year of the National Clinical Trials Network and NCI Community Oncology Research Program. SWOG has excelled, and The Hope Foundation has been deeply invested in fulfilling our mission of supporting the Group. Your generous donations have made all of this possible.

Our competitive grants programs continue to thrive, providing multi-year funding for innovative and practice-changing studies. We awarded new Impact grants and Coltman Fellowships,  and launched additional opportunities for research funding including SWOG Trial Support and the Hope SEED Fund. We hosted more than 1,800 at the biannual SWOG meetings, where early-career investigators were a special focus of our work. Hope joined with the nascent SWOG Young Investigators Task Force, again funding the Young Investigators Training Course and convening tailored (and popular!) Group Meeting sessions engaging outstanding new researchers within the NCTN.

Judging by the length of our to-do list, much more awaits us – and you – in 2015. I am inspired by the challenges the new year will bring. I could draft a long agenda of all that is to come, though think it’s more efficient to suggest you peruse our website and follow our Twitter (@SupportingSWOG) feed for timely updates. To foreshadow, I am particularly excited about the launch of the SWOG Grant Writing Workshop, Rare Cancer Fellowship, grants in Cancer Care Delivery research, and about our comprehensive support to aid VA participation in cancer clinical trials.

And finally…I imagine you’ve heard about the Kilimanjaro Climb for Cancer Clinical trials, our first collaborative fundraising effort in concert with ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation, Children’s Oncology Group, the Alliance, and NRG Oncology. We are thrilled to be directly channeling 98% of each donation to cancer research.

This progress is made possible because of generous supporters like you. Please give your gift today. And most importantly, thank you. Thank you for your outstanding commitment to cancer patients and survivors everywhere.

Warm regards,
Johanna Horn
President & CEO