Ethics Think Tank

During the CAC2 Annual Summit in 2017, several members of the CAC2 community began discussing the topic of ethics as it affects non-profit organizations when funding research and clinical trials.  That conversation led to the inclusion of a bioethicist on 2018 Summit program.

Dr. Yoram Unguru, pediatric oncologist and bioethicist from the Herman and Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Mt. Sinai and the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics delivered the Keynote address at the 2018 Annual Summit.  His talk inspired further discussion within the Research Interest Group breakout session that followed, as members further probed the relationships among pediatric cancer charities, the clinical researchers who benefit from their funding, and the patients for whom those charities advocate. 

Upon further exploration of the topic, it was discovered that the literature has little to say about what obligations, if any, charitable organizations have when sponsoring pediatric oncology clinical trials.  Nor is consideration given to how they might cultivate ethically robust partnerships between patients and relevant stakeholders within the pediatric cancer community.  This gap presented an opportunity for CAC2 to become a thought leader in the area. The group set as its goal to study these issues and produce a paper that would be a novel contribution to the literature and a help to the community. The Ethics Think Tank Working Group engaged Vasiliki Nataly Rahimzadeh, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, to assist with the process of refining the project goals and performing the systemic literature review that enabled us to explore the current ethical landscape around pediatric cancer clinical trial funding by nonprofit organizations.