The Southwest Oncology Group has an active and ongoing Cancer Control Program to involve a wide segment of community hospitals and clinical research activities, employing high priority Southwest Oncology Group protocols. This program involves 327 physicians and 174 affiliate institutions in 30 states clustered around the 23 Southwest Oncology Group Member Institutions.
The specific aims of this application are (1) to continue to make high priority state of the art treatment protocols available to physicians and their patients in community hospitals through their participation in the Southwest Oncology Group Cancer Control Affiliate Program; (2) to maintain the quality of data through continuous quality control checks by Member Institutions and the Statistical Center; (3) to assure the quality and reliability of research data and OPRR and NCI drug handling compliance through quality assurance audit visits; (4) to provide an ongoing educational program of scientific and regulatory topics at the Group Meetings; and (5) to involve Cancer Control Affiliate physicians in the administrative and scientific thrust of the Group. The focal point of the participation of these Cancer Control Affiliates is the Principal Investigators of the 23 Member Institutions who are responsible for recruiting new physicians to the program and providing quality control. The entire support services of the Southwest Oncology Group are brought to bear on these affiliates. They include design and selection of high priority research protocols, registration, randomization, quality control of research forms, radiotherapy quality control, pathology material review, response determination, statistical analysis, quality assurance audits, and reporting.
