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Last Updated: 11/06/20

Who sponsors imaging clinical trials?

Clinical imaging trials are sponsored by private organizations, by companies that develop imaging devices and imaging agents so these can gain approval by the FDA, by individual researchers and medical institutions, and by the National Cancer Institute. All are seeking better ways to screen, diagnose, and direct the treatment of disease.

NCI is involved with the facilitation of clinical trials in imaging, including the following:

  • American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN)
    ACRIN is an international cooperative group sponsored by NCI’s Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) as well as philanthropies. Through clinical trials of diagnostic imaging and image-guided therapeutic technologies, ACRIN’s goal is to generate information that will lengthen and improve the quality of the lives of cancer patients. ACRIN’s clinical trials address both existing and emerging technologies as they apply to cancer screening, diagnosis, staging, imaging as a biomarker, and image-guided treatment.
  • CIP Early Phase Clinical Trials of Imaging Agents
    The Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) has developed a contract-supported infrastructure to support Phase I (Safety) and Phase II (Preliminary Efficacy) clinical trials of promising imaging agents.
  • Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP)
    NCI’s CTEP approves and monitors over 300 scientifically rigorous clinical trials proposed by the Cooperative Cancer Groups, testing new oncology drugs, or novel combinations of existing drug, surgical and radiation therapy strategies. A large portion of these trials include imaging as part of staging or monitoring the progress of therapies. CIP participates in the Cancer Therapy and Evaluation Program (CTEP) protocol reviews. This collaboration encourages the integration of advanced imaging technology in ongoing therapeutic clinical trials and greater emphasis on imaging findings as potential biomarkers, assuring that image data in clinical trials will be reliable for monitoring and predicting response to various therapies.