The Quality Assurance Review Center (QARC) has been funded by the NCI since 1980 to provide radiation therapy quality assurance services for multiple NCI funded cooperative groups. These services include acquisition and management of protocol required data, target volume and treatment dosimetry review, and reporting and archiving of the data and images. QARC will continue to promote participation and compliance in trials through interventional reviews and non-restrictive formats for data submission. QARC will support the expanding use of imaging and new imaging modalities in clinical trials and will participate in national initiatives on uniform standards. QARC will expand its capability to electronically receive, review, and archive both imaging and radiation therapy data and will support the incorporation of advanced technologies by developing appropriate protocol guidelines and credentialing strategies. These goals will increase the participation and compliance in clinical trials, resulting in faster answers to protocol questions. For over 25 years QARC has demonstrated that QA of radiation therapy improves protocol outcomes. Interventional review at the start of treatment reduces the number of protocol deviations, thereby helping to validate protocol results. This process will continue in the next grant cycle. A major goal of this proposal which will facilitate both interventional and final reviews is further development and expansion of QARC's ability to receive, review, and archive electronically transmitted data. Already facile with DICOM image handling, QARC will work with the diagnostic imaging committees of the cooperative groups and participate in national initiatives to standardize data formats and to promote the role of imaging in clinical trials. For treatment planning data, QARC has established the capability to review digital data through partnership in the Advanced Technology Consortium; this collaboration will continue as will further development of the open source code CERR application. As protocols become increasingly complex and image-driven, timely review by multiple experts is necessary. To fulfill this need, QARC will develop Web browser capability for real-time review using .net technology. To support the use of new technologies in clinical trials, QARC will develop, as it has in the past, templates for protocol guidelines and benchmarks for credentialing institutions in new technologies, which will likely include PET, PET/CT and methods that limit or account for motion during breathing. The mission of the Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program is to improve the lives of cancer patients by finding better ways to treat, control and cure cancer. QARC's program will advance the radiation therapy and diagnostic imaging quality of these clinical trials. Overall standard of care of cancer patients will be improved.
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