Clinical Trial Office

The Clinical Trial Office (CTO) is a central facility of the DKFZ's scientific infrastructure dedicated to supporting and optimizing clinical trials and the use and provision of research data. Our mission is to drive scientific innovation through excellent research processes, ensuring the highest standards of quality, safety and efficiency. We offer tailor-made solutions that enable, optimize and secure the conduct of clinical trials and the secondary use of health data. The CTO is active at two renowned institutions - the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) - and works in close collaboration with research institutions, medical experts and external partners.

Within the CTO, three specialized working groups - the Clinical Trials (CT) working group, the Secondary Use of Data in Oncology (SUDO) working group and the NAKO Central Data Management (NAKO-ZDM) working group - work together to address the various facets of clinical and data-supported research.

The Clinical Trials working group aims to facilitate excellent Investigator Initiated Trials (IITs) that create a direct benefit for patients and society. It ensures that trials not only meet the highest scientific and regulatory standards, but are also implemented efficiently and sustainably. We offer comprehensive advice on all organizational, financial and regulatory aspects. In Sponsor Oversight, quality-assured processes ensure the integrity of clinical trials sponsored by the DKFZ and support a successful and smooth process throughout all phases. The CT WG is therefore a central point of contact for ensuring the quality and integrity of clinical trials and supporting their smooth implementation.

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The SUDO working group is dedicated to the use and provision of medical data for research. Its mission is to promote the exchange of knowledge and drive the development of innovative approaches in cancer research through digital solutions and sustainable data infrastructures. To this end, the WG supports organizational units as well as researchers and physicians in the implementation of studies and projects. It designs and operates web-based portals for the submission of study synopses, develops IT structures for data protection-compliant secondary use and ensures that data is harmonized according to international standards and prepared for further scientific applications.

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The NAKO-ZDM working group provides the Integration Center of the NAKO Health Study, which plays a central role in the storage, processing and integration of data from one of the largest long-term population studies in Germany. With the aim of researching the causes of widespread diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart attacks, the center collects and stores comprehensive study data from 200,000 participants from all over Germany. The WG develops and operates software solutions for efficient and standardized data collection and integration and implements procedures for quality control and assurance. It ensures that the data is available in the long term and supports its scientific use through close cooperation with other competence centers of the study. An interdisciplinary team ensures the continuous development of the software and IT infrastructures.

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