This application seeks support for the activities of CALGB investigators participating through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and adjunct institutions in the programs of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B. In this revised application, we demonstrate the growth of the clinical trials and outreach efforts at UNC-CH and its adjuncts, the new scientific and administrative contributions of UNC-CH investigators to Group studies and committees, and the expansion of the UNC-CH accrual effort with the addition of two new adjunct institutions, including the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and its affiliated Veterans Administration Hospital with the potential to accrue an additional 80-100 patients annually to group studies including all disease sites as well as bone marrow transplantation. Our newly recruited members at UNC-CH have already begun to contribute extensively to the intellectual productivity of the Group by designing and chairing new protocols in Leukemia, Immunology and Genetics, Chemotherapy and Biotherapy, Radiation Therapy, Respiratory and the Breast committees; by presenting pilot observations for group validation and expansion; and by stimulating more basic research components to group activities, particularly in biotherapy, immunology and molecular biology. We plan to continue direct service to the group by maintaining an active Clonal Excess Reference Laboratory that was approved and funded with enthusiasm during the recent review and have added a Biotherapy Monitoring Reference Laboratory at UNC-CH for Group biotherapy studies that received new funding in the last grant review. We have further broadened Group science by the addition of independently funded molecular studies in myelodysplasia in association with Group GM-CSF protocols designed by Edison Liu, a new recruit to our Cancer Center. Previous and new members of our institution will expand our contribution to Group science and administration as core members of standing Group scientific and administrative committees (Ozer, Immunology and Genetics core, Lymphoma core, Chemotherapy core, Chemotherapy vice-chair and Biotherapy chair; Rao, Cytogenetics core; Evans, Psychiatry core; Tepper, Radiation Therapy Core and Gavigan, Data Audit core, Chemotherapy/Biotherapy core, Oncology Nursing core. Newly recruited faculty at UNC-CH will expand our commitment and Group participation in the Breast and Surgery committees (J.Huth,J.Mohler); Radiation Therapy (J.Tepper, J.Rosenman, S.Sailer, J.Raleigh), Cancer Prevention (S.Fletcher) and Psychiatry (D.Evans). Investigators at UNC-CH and its adjuncts have therefore expanded efforts to strengthen the CALGB clinical trials network in the region from Virginia throughout North Carolina and into South Carolina both to increase accrual and to stimulate state-of-the-art quality of oncology care in the region. Ongoing participation in CALGB continues to serve as an important educational vehicle for faculty, fellows and housestaff at UNC-CH as well as the outreach physicians in private practice of hematology and medical oncology who participate in our CALGB activities.
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