The sustainability of the academic oncology workforce is increasingly threatened by inconsistent institutional support, short-lived startup packages, and an overreliance on limited internal cancer center funds. Contextualized by data presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Karen Reckamp, MD, MS, discussed the strategic imperative to reform these vulnerable funding paradigms.
Reckamp first emphasized that as traditional institutional funding models shift, academic centers must cultivate diverse, multisource funding streams to protect non-clinical research time. She further highlighted the essential integration of industry-sponsored clinical trials, stressing that enrolling local, representative patient populations ensures the real-world applicability of trial data to Western clinical practice. Ultimately, Reckamp pointed to philanthropy and mission-aligned external support as vital mechanisms to facilitate investigator-initiated clinical research, stabilize the investigator pipeline, and preserve the vital bridge between bench research and bedside patient care in oncology centers.
Reckamp is director of Medical Oncology, associate director of Clinical Research, and the medical oncology director of the Lung Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Transcript:
CancerNetwork®: From a workforce sustainability standpoint, how do constraints such as inconsistent non-clinical time, short-lived startup support, and a heavy reliance on cancer center funds rather than sustainable external models threaten the future pipeline of clinical investigators who bridge that gap between bench research and bedside application?
Reckamp: The funding models have continued to shift over the decades, and we need to find new ways to support the initiatives that are aligned with these priorities. Some of this is through industry trials—which will always be a part of the research process—and making sure that we have Western patients enrolled in these clinical trials because there are differences across populations.
We need to bring these clinical trials to our patients and not just take data that are related to patients who may not be US based or Western based; that may not relate to our type of patients. Making sure there is a representativeness in our patient population will help us. Then, finding things like philanthropy to help support some of the clinical research that is ongoing and supportive of the missions of the institutions involved [will be key].
Reference
Fracasso PM, George TJ, Honeycutt H, et al. Support of academic non-clinical efforts for cancer investigator faculty at Association of American Cancer Institutes. J Clin Oncol. 2026;44(suppl 16):9005. doi:10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.9005
