Researcher Dr. Jeffrey B. Smerage is one of four young physicians chosen after a rigorous and competitive application process to participate in the “Young Investigators” Training Course conducted by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG).

Smerage is a clinical fellow in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Comprehensive Cancer Center.

This training program helps develop the specific skills essential to design and conduct cancer clinical trials. Through the program, these young physician-researchers receive intensive training in statistical principles, data collection and analysis, critical decision-making, protocol development, and SWOG procedures.

Smerage spent four days at the group’s operations office in San Antonio, Texas, and four days with the statisticians at the SWOG Statistical Center in Seattle. His research focuses on development of an effective method to determine an appropriate and effective treatment course for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

“My career goal is to become a translational investigator,” Smerage says. “That is, I am interested in the transfer of knowledge from the ‘bench to the bedside,’ as well as from the ‘bedside to the bench.’ I believe the Young Investigator Training Course will provide me with invaluable training in clinical protocol development in general, and will be an excellent mechanism to learn the process of protocol development within the Southwest Oncology Group.”

SWOG initiated the program in 1999 with support of the Hope Foundation.