Central IRB Review

The Central Institutional Review Board Program (CIRB) is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in consultation with the DHHS Office of Human Research Protections. The CIRB provides an innovative approach to human subject protection through a "facilitated review" process that streamlines local IRB review of adult and pediatric national multi-center cancer treatment trials. The primary goal of the CIRB is:

• To improve access to clinical trials for patients and their physicians by enabling local IRBs to rapidly approve NCI-sponsored multi-site trials through the use of a facilitated review process.

• To enhance the protection of research participants by providing consistent, expert CIRB review at the national level before the protocol is distributed to local investigators.

• To collaborate effectively with local IRBs by reducing the amount of time they traditionally spend on reviewing protocols, thereby allowing them to focus on the actual conduct of research at their institutions and on educating staff on the ethical conduct of human research.

• To reduce the administrative burdens on local IRBs and investigators associated with IRB submission by providing local IRBs with expert reviews and IRB submission templates.

The Adult CIRB currently reviews all Phase 3 Cooperative Group Trials from the SWOG, RTOG, NSABP, NCIC, NCCTG, GOG, ECOG, CALGB, and ACOSOG, as well as any other protocols opened in the Cancer Trials Support Unit. The Pediatric CIRB reviews all NCI-approved COG Phase 2,3, and Pilot protocols.

The CIRB provides consistent expert IRB review at the national level before the protocol is distributed by the Cooperative Group to local investigators. Both boards are composed of individuals who represent a broad range of oncology scientific and nonscientific disciplines. These may include oncology physicians, nurses, patient representatives, pharmacists, ethicists and attorneys.

The UCD IRB will only accept new initial submissions under the CIRB program at this time.