) Building on 17 years of experience as a CCOP, the Upstate Carolina Community Clinical Oncology Program (UC-CCOP) seeks the opportunity to continue to meet our community?s need for innovative and relevant studies of promising therapeutic modalities and cancer control research through the Year 2006. The program was re-named in 1998, previously known as Spartanburg CCOP. The CCOP provides access to national cooperative clinical trials to well over 800,000 people in 9 counties: 6 in South Carolina and 3 in North Carolina. SC is 21st in population density and ranks 14th in the percent who are medically underserved. The registries report over 2000 new cancer patients per year, nearly doubled since 1995. Against this rural background, a five hospital consortium was developed for the conduct of community clinical trials. The service area has a 17.4% minority base. Unique capacities are demonstrated in minority accrual (over 22% in treatment & ranking high in cancer control) and by accruing the underserved: 99 entries in the last 5 years. The CCOP brings together the strength and resources of multidisciplinary investigators who collaborate in the conduct of studies from SWOG, NSABP, RTOG, GOG, MDACC, and Cancer Center at Wake Forest University. The 81 investigators include 19 oncologists along with 62 colleagues in other disciplines. The UC-CCOP has contributed over 3000 entries to clinical trials since 1983, the start of the CCOP program. Over the next five years, the overall aim is to reduce cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality by accelerating the transfer of newly developed cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, patient management, rehabilitation, and continuing care technology to widespread community application, including special emphasis on patient management trials, an emphasis on trials exploring the use of complementary medicine, and continued attention to Quality of Life research. By careful design, the program will focus our resources on cancer control research while continuing to build our treatment program. These complementary objectives of both treatment and cancer control are a ready match for the patient population and fit within CCOP interests and capabilities. A rural outreach program has been initiated and will continue to grow. The immediate goals of the CCOP are to continue to increase our accrual; to maintain wide community participation, including minority groups and underserved populations, in both treatment and cancer control research approved by NCI; to sustain and continue to expand our very large cancer control program, including the use of a range of resources to identify potential candidates for cancer control research projects. To maintain Follow-Up to the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT), the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), to increase accrual to STAR trial and others, and to initiate the upcoming SELECT Trial are primary objectives. In summary, the CCOP track record demonstrates the ability to manage complex clinical research and cancer control activities while producing the highest quality data. The CCOP has the facilities and well-trained professional personnel to support the full array of studies. The CCOP staffing pattern, protocol management procedures, patient/participant management approaches, quality control mechanisms, IRB structure and liaison are all in place and functioning to support current and future therapeutic and cancer control activities. In the first year of new funding (2001-2002), we will 1) contribute nearly 600 credits to the National Cancer Institute?s Community Clinical Oncology Program: over 118 treatment credits and over 475 cancer control credits and 2) will serve the Carolinas as a nationally recognized research program of excellence.
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