) The principal objective of the G e isinger Clinical Oncology Program is to enroll maximal numbers of patients/subjects onto NCI-approved cancer prevention, cancer control and cancer treatment protocols, bringing research-quality care to a large rural population of Pennsylvania. The Geisinger Health System serves more than 2.3 million Pennsylvanians across 31 primarily rural counties in the central and northeastern parts of the State. The CCOP is based in a 550 physician primary and multispecialty group practice in 50 sites anchored by a 568 bed tertiary care medical center in Danville: The Geisinger Medical Center. Satellite facilities will participate in the Wilkes-Barre and State College areas. The health system operates a staff model, not-for-profit HMO with over 200,000 members that works cooperatively with the CCOP to promote cancer prevention trials. Among Geisinger CCOP's advantages are a stable CCOP staff with successful performance over the 14 year history of the NCI CCOP program. There is a large network of primary care practices, linked by computerized record systems and a large cancer patient population. A rarity in the era of managed care is a strong continuing institutional commitment to clinical research trials in cancer, and a willingness of both the Center and the HMO to fund important prevention and treatment trials, not as a marketing tool, but as part of it's primary mission. The ease of performing clinical trails is enhanced by an excellent unit record system, extensive high-quality tumor registry and interlocking computerized systems for laboratory, pathology, radiology, demographic and appointments data. This proposal retains the NCCTG as Geisinger's primary research base, includes ECOG as a secondary base, CCG as a special childrens base, and proposes a new additional base, the GOG to provide a vehicle for recruiting more women onto treatment, prevention and control studies.
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