GCO (Groupes Coopérateurs en Oncologie) is a French network of ten cancer cooperative groups that conduct cancer clinical and translational research in France, and in Europe and in other countries. Most of these groups are organ specific (e.g., lung, digestive, gynecologic, lymphoma, myeloma, head and neck, and brain cancers).
Usually acting as study promotors and benefiting from their own operational resources, they have a strong track record of designing and completing trials that have diminished the impact of cancer in many ways. GCO also play a strong science dissemination role through numerous publications in leading medical journals and presentations at the main oncology congresses.
They are all not-for-profit organizations and have been accredited “French cooperative intergroup of international dimension in the field of cancer” by the French National Cancer Institute (INCa).
They are committed to respect principles relating to:
- Statutory operating procedures and not-for-profit management
- Academic communication of all research project results
- Financial transparency
Download the Ethics Charter of the GCO network
Collaboration between the cooperative groups and the pharmaceutical or biothechnological industries is a natural occurrence, with all parties sharing common goals: producing top-quality scientific results and developing effective, well-tolerated treatments. However, both cooperative groups and industry have to consider the potential divergences in their approaches to creating a partnership that is both effective and operates in a transparent manner. This requires the industry to respect certain principals essential to the success of cooperative groups, those which ensure both their independence and industrial confidence. Collaboration between these parties is distinctly different from a service-provider arrangement. It must therefore be formalized for each project, with terms laid out in a partnership convention. The Charter of collaboration between the Cancer Cooperative Groups and industry outlines the principals to be respected in order to establish such a partnership convention, which, once drawn up, will include the Charter as an annex.
- ARCAGY GINECO: Cooperative Gynecological Cancer Research Group
- FFCD: Francophone Federation of Digestive Tract Cancerology
- CIGAL: The Cooperative Intergroup for Advances in Leukemia *
- GERCOR: Oncology Multidisciplinary Research Group
- GORTEC: French Head and Neck Oncology and Radiotherapy Group
- IFCT: French Cooperative Thoracic Intergroup
- LYSA: The Lymphoma Study Association
- LYSARC: The Lymphoma Academic Research Organisation
- IFM: Intergroup Francophone of Myeloma
- ANOCEF - IGCNO: Cooperator Intergroup in Neurology and Oncology
- SFCE: French Society for the Fight against Cancer and Leukemia in Children and Adolescents
* CIGAL, The Cooperative Intergroup for Advances in Leukemia, is an intergroupe made up of 5 cooperative groups : ALFA (Acute Leukemia French Association), FILO (French Innovative Leukemia Organization (FILO), FIM (French Intergroup of Myeloproliferative syndromes ), GFM (Francophone Group of Myelodysplasia), GRAALL (Group for Research on Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.