Since its involvement in the Polycythemia Vera Study Group and the Southwest Oncology group in the 1960s, faculty members at Oregon Health Sciences University have been vigorous participants in the clinical cancer research activities of a number of multi-institutional study groups. Only more recently, however, have steps been taken to systematically strengthen other components of our cancer research program. In the past 5 years funded peer-reviewed basic cancer research projects at OHSU have increased substantially. Kaiser Permanente oncologist and scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research have not only participated administratively and clinically, in multi-institutional study groups (NSABP and SWOG), for over 20 years they have actively and productively focused on studies of cancer screening, cancer control, and epidemiology. Of most significant importance to this proposal is the development, last year, of a comprehensive multi-institutional agreement to collaborate in cancer research; an agreement that involves OHSU and its institutes, schools and hospitals, Kaiser-Permanente, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. This consortium is now beginning to serve as a focus for collaborative clinical and cancer control research and, because of the size of the populations served, will permit the development of our own clinical studies. This consortium serves as the foundation for the Oregon Cancer Center proposed here. This will be the only comprehensive cancer center in our state. Coordination of these activities and the development of essential new programs will require comprehensive planning - planning for which we here seek support - so that our center will serve to optimally encourage new basic studies in molecular and cellular oncology and provide a springboard for interdisciplinary programs in cancer research with an emphasis on bench-to-bedside linkage. There are five organ-site programs upon which we intend to focus initially; breast, hematologic, neuro-endocrine, colorectal, and head and neck. We have chosen these programs, in large part, because strengths already exist in these areas. For the same reasons, we have chosen to develop four general scientific programs to interdigitate with these clinical programs. They include: molecular and cellular oncology, experimental therapeutics, biostatistics, and epidemiology and public health. Seven shared core facilities will support these collaborative studies, including laboratories for tumor procurement, molecular biology (DNA synthesis, peptide synthesis, and protein microsequencing), biostatistics and data analysis, transgenic animals, cytogenetics, immunohistochemistry, and flow cytometry. All but the tumor procurement core are fully equipped and independently functional at this time. By providing a mechanism by which basic and clinical cancer scientists will be encouraged to develop collaborative studies, by utilizing existing institutional commitments and resources in rural health care targeting medically underserved communities, and by optimizing use of medical informatics technology, our cancer center, located on the campus of the only health sciences university in the State of Oregon, will contribute not only to improved health or Oregonians, but to the development of new knowledge that may have a considerable impact on human health in general.
