Angela M. Davies, assistant professor of medicine at the UC Davis Cancer Center, is one of four research physicians nationwide selected for a "Young Investigators" training course offered by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), one of the largest of the National Cancer Institute-supported cancer clinical trials cooperative groups in the United States. Its mission is to prevent and cure cancer.

Recognizing the growing need for an infusion of new investigators into the ranks of cancer researchers, the Southwest Oncology Group initiated its young investigators program in 1999 with support from The Hope Foundation and Ortho Biotech Oncology.

"Over the years, it has become more and more apparent that cancer researchers are becoming an extinct breed," said SWOG Chairman Charles A.
Coltman, Jr. "Young physicians are bypassing a career in this complex field. Younger people with new and fresh ideas are needed to perpetuate the
growing legacy of successful cancer research."

The young investigators training course is designed to give researchers the specific skills they need to design and conduct cancer clinical trials, the rigorous scientific studies that test the safety and effectiveness of new therapies before they reach the market. Davies spent four days at SWOG's operations office in San Antonio, Texas, and four days at the SWOG statistical center in Seattle working on development of a clinical trial for treatment of advanced non-small lung cancer.

Davies received her medical degree in 1996 from McMaster University of Hamilton, Ontario. She completed her internal medicine residency in 1999
at the University of Toronto and finished her medical oncology fellowship with McMaster University in 2001. She and the other new SWOG young investigators will be recognized at the organization's Fall 2003 Group Meeting in Seattle in October.

Over the past four years, the young investigators program has trained 19 investigators who have introduced seven new clinical trials at institutions across the United States.

SWOG consists of more than 3,600 physician researchers throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Over the past 13 years, SWOG
research has led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of 10 new cancer therapies.

UC Davis Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated center between San Francisco and Portland, Ore., is a program of the UC
Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center.