(Applicant's narrative) The Childrens Cancer Group (CCG) is an NCI-funded clinical trials cooperative oncology group, which has acted as a research base for the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) since the program's inception. CCG has a network of university-associated, tertiary care, pediatric cancer centers, which sponsor smaller community institutions, thereby providing them the resources to carry out clinical trial protocols at the local site. Membership currently includes 35 tertiary centers with 79 affiliated community institutions, 18 of which are CCOP affiliates. The catchment area includes thirty-six states, the District of Columbia, four Canadian provinces, and Perth, Western Australia. Through this broad geographic distribution, CCG has the opportunity to influence the diagnostic, treatment and management practices in a large portion of North America. CCG has established goals for its CCOP project which are consistent with the CCOP's stated goals, but which reflect the unique nature of childhood cancer and the practitioners who treat it. CCG will continue to bring state-of-the-art protocols to the community by continuing to involve CCOP investigators in the development and execution of clinical trials. Workshops, scientific and educational sessions are regularly conducted to assure that investigators and clinical data managers have current knowledge and understand the processes for participation in clinical trials. Since most pediatric cancer patients are enrolled on clinical trials, a modest outreach program is proposed to continue and improve on the record. CCG has recently appointed a new Epidemiology and Cancer Control Strategy Group to further the involvement of CCG and the CCOP institutions in cancer control and prevention studies. Studies in development are related to evaluating both short-term and long term quality of life in cancer patients, to improving supportive care measures, to studying cancer etiology and prevention, and to identifying long-term health-related outcomes and defining intervention strategies to reduce negative effects.
| Minasian, Lori M; Tangen, Catherine M; Wickerham, D Lawrence (2015) Ongoing Use of Data and Specimens From National Cancer Institute-Sponsored Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials in the Community Clinical Oncology Program. Semin Oncol 42:748-63 |
