The unique circumstances that brought the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute to fruition only a decade ago continue to fuel its success today. Recently recognized by the National Cancer Institute as an NCI-designated center (P30CA76292), Moffitt was created by the Florida Legislature in the early 1980s to meet a compelling need to respond to a virtual epidemic of cancer in the state. The state mandate that the Center become a statewide research institute and a national resource for basic research, clinical research and multi-disciplinary approaches to patient treatment has provided the underpinning for a decade of phenomenal growth and rapid maturation. The center's mission remains totally focused on the prevention and cure of cancer. Moffitt's membership in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group begin in 1992, when John C. Ruckdeschel, M.D., arrived Albany Medical College as Center Director. The ECOG PI at Albany, Dr. Ruckdeschel immediately involved Moffitt in ECOG as an affiliate of Albany. The Center was subsequently funded through the ECOG Operations Office from 1992 to 1997, at which time ECOG institutional funding was awarded directly from the NCI (U10 CA73590) for the remaining two years of the grant cycle ending 4/3/99, with Henry Wagner, Jr., M.D., as Principal Investigator. The Moffitt Cancer Center's Consortia Membership took effect in 1993, and includes the James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital, located on the campus of the University of South Florida, and the Tampa General Hospital, located in downtown Tampa. The Moffitt Cancer Center offers ECOG several strong attributes: a large patient base, investigators experienced in cooperative group studies, in increasing emphasis on translational research and early phase trials with the expectation that promising studies will be passed to the cooperative groups for large scale testing. The institution is a consistently high accruer to ECOG trials, its investigators serve numerous administrative and scientific leadership positions, and the Center's Bone Marrow Transplant Program, the largest in the Southeast, was approved as an ECOG center for bone marrow transplantation in 1996. A cohort of Moffitt investigators, along with the extensive Cancer Control Research Program and Lifetime Cancer Screening Center, offers ECOG scientific leadership, laboratory support and potential patient accrual to cancer prevention studies.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 45 publications
