HDFCCC K12 Physician Scientist Program in Clinical Oncology

The C2C Seminars provide high-yield, practical information about designing, funding, and conducting patient-facing oncology trials. Each year, 2 half-day workshops are offered. Open to senior fellows and early-career faculty. Contact Jennifer Seuferer for more information. 

C2C Part 1: Investigator-Initiated Therapeutic Trials - From Concept to Activation (offered in Fall)

• Getting started- coming up with an idea, types of sponsors, creative phase I/II designs, and the LOI process

• Pen to paper: Protocol structure and available resources to facilitate the writing process

• Study start-up 1: Understanding budgets

• Study start-up 2: Activation process and typical timeline

• Working Lunch - Ask Me Anything Panel

C2C Part 2: Investigator-Initiated Therapeutic Trials - From Launch to Completion - May 6, 2026, 8:30am - 1pm Register

• Nuts and bolts of team operations and running a trial - Advice from the experts

• Assessing radiographic response

• Accrual Considerations

• Informed consent: Why it matters, tips for making the process go smoothly, and pitfalls to avoid

• You’re Only Human: Deviations, violations, and incidents and how to handle them

• Working lunch - (Panel Discussion)

This seminar series includes career development and leadership topics to help physician scientists advance their careers. It's a 2-year curriculum with topics repeating every other year. All the seminars are listed below, however, for any given year, only half of them will take place (the other half will occur the following year).  They are scheduled in blocks (July - December and January - June).  Register here.

Lead by Michelle Arkin, PhD, Michael Cheng, MD, and Trever Bivona, MD/PhD

This workshop will provide training and a rigorous foundation for hypothesis-driven patient-focused research, covering clinical and preclinical iteration. Attendees will participate in interactive didactic and individualized discussions that culminate in a translational and/or clinical research protocol synopsis focused on testing a patient-centered hypothesis of their interest(s).

For most topics, participants will first view online lectures, followed by in-person, small group discussion. Participants must be able to participate in the in-person group discussions to join the course. Open to postdocs, graduate students, senior clinical fellows and early career faculty. 

Learning Objectives:

• Summarize the stages of preclinical foundations
• Describe combination studies and when to use them
• Discuss pharmacodynamic studies and radionuclide therapies
• Examine drug development from the perspective of a clinical pharmacist
• Summarize clinical trial design

Schedule:
* Times are still being confirmed but sessions will occur between 1-5pm each day

Monday 7/21:

• Preclinical Foundations & Case Studies Discussion Group – Michelle Arkin, PhD

Tuesday 7/22:

• Pre-Clinical Combination Therapies Discussion Group – Cathy Smith, MD
• Synopsis of Clinical Trial Design – Andrew Ko, MD, FASCO

Wednesday 7/23:

• Nuclear Medicine for Cancer Treatment Discussion Group - Michael Evans, PhD
• Pharmacodynamic Studies Discussion Group – Adil Daud, MD

Thursday 7/24:

• Preclinical to Clinical PK & PD – Liang.Zhao, PhD
• Clinical Combination Studies – Michael Cheng, MD
• Class project work

Friday 7/25:

• Project presentations