Worta J. McCaskill-Stevens (July 26, 1949 â November 15, 2023) was an American medical oncologist and a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She was a leading authority on cancer prevention, clinical trials, and health equity. McCaskill-Stevens is best known for her leadership of the **NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP)**, where, as Chief of the Community Oncology and Prevention Trials Research Group, she oversaw clinical cancer research in community settings across the United States and Internationally.
She initially gained international recognition as the program director for the **STAR Trial** (Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene), a landmark study involving nearly 20,000 women that shaped modern protocols for breast cancer risk reduction. Throughout her career, McCaskill-Stevens championed the inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials, working to address systemic disparities in cancer outcomes. In 2023, the NCI established the *Worta McCaskill-Stevens Career Development Award* in her honor to fund future research in community oncology.
McCaskill-Stevens was born in Louisburg, North Carolina on July 26, 1949. She attended Washington University in St. Louis and the American College of Switzerland. McCaskill-Stevens worked as an intern for Time and as a medical editor for Marcel Dekker and the Guttmacher Institute. At Georgetown University School of Medicine, she started medical school at age 30, earning a M.D. in 1985 and completing an internal medicine residency. McCaskill-Stevens did a medical oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
McCaskill-Stevens, a medical oncologist, joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1998 as the program director for the study of tamoxifen and raloxifene (STAR), and assumed responsibilities for breast cancer prevention with the community clinical oncology program (CCOP). She chaired the 2009 National Institutes of Health (NIH) State-of-the Science Conference on ductal carcinoma in situ; was a member of the early breast cancer clinical trialist group in Oxford; and was a member of NCI's breast cancer steering committee. McCaskill-Stevens co-directed the breast care and research center at the Indiana University Cancer Center.
McCaskill-Stevens was chief of the community oncology and prevention trials research group, which houses the NCI community oncology research program (NCORP), a community-based clinical trials network launched in 2014. As NCORP director, she oversaw the program supporting community hospitals, physicians and others to participate in NCI-approved cancer treatment, prevention, screening, and control clinical trials, as well as cancer care delivery studies.
McCaskill-Stevens' interests included cancer disparities research both nationally and internationally, management of comorbidities within clinical trials and molecular research that helps to identify those individuals who will best benefit from cancer prevention interventions. She worked with the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR), as the program director.
McCaskill-Stevens authored or co-authored over 100 scientific papers, with a specific focus on breast cancer prevention, clinical trial recruitment, and minority health.
McCaskill-Stevens received numerous awards for her leadership in oncology and her commitment to health equity.
Following her death in 2023, the National Cancer Institute established the NCI Worta McCaskill-Stevens Career Development Award for Community Oncology and Prevention Research (K12). This permanent grant mechanism was created to honor her commitment to health equity and is designed to train clinical scientists who focus on community oncology.
In late 2023, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology renamed its annual health disparities meeting the Worta McCaskill-Stevens, MD, MS Health Disparities Symposium.
McCaskill-Stevens died on November 15, 2023.