This application is submitted by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) in order to request funding via the U10 mechanism to continue as a main institutional member of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG). AECOM faculty plays key roles scientific and administrative leadership roles in ECOG, including both clinical and translational research. The AECOM Cancer Center (AECC) is an NCI-designated Cancer Center that has been continuously funded since 1971. During the last 3-year grant cycle, AECC members accrued approximately 150 patients to ECOG therapeutic trials, authored or co-authored 17 manuscripts and 17 abstracts related to ECOG studies, chaired or co-chaired 7 ECOG studies that were completed or developed, and played key roles as study chair or co-chair in two pivotal breast cancer trials that were orally presented at the 2005 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting (E2197) and 2005 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (E1199). AECOM faculty provided scientific leadership in the breast (J. Sparano), gastrointestinal (L. Rajdev), leukemia (R. Gallagher, A. Melnick, A. Verma), lymphoma (J. Sparano), head/neck (M. Haigentz), developmental therapeutics (S. Mani), and thoracic committees (S. Keller, R. Perez-Soler). Moreover, AECOM faculty have played key roles in supporting ECOG's translational research, as evidenced by Dr. Robert Gallagher's role as a promeylocytic leukemia core laboratory director (NIH 5RO1-CA65771), and the recent recruitment of Dr. Ari Melnick to serve as chair of the Leukemia Laboratory Committee. During the next funding period, AECOM investigators will play key roles as study chairs or co-chairs for studies in breast (TAILORx, E1104) and gastrointestinal (E3205, E3206) cancers, and leukemia (E1905). The principal investigator of this application (J. Sparano) also plays a key administrative role in ECOG as an ECOG Executive Committee member, ECOG Associate Chair for Disease and Modality Research, and founder and program director for the annual ECOG Young Investigator Symposium. Approximately 70% of patients enrolled on ECOG studies are minorities, evidence of an effective program for recruitment of minority subjects. Finally, the recent creation of the Montefiore-Einstein Cancer Center Network (MECCN) is projected to result in up to a 50% increase in accrual during the next funding period by facilitating the participation of AECOM-affiliated community physicians.
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