The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) has a history of leadership, translational research, and accrual to cooperative group trials. The PI of this grant is Dr. Joan Schiller, chief of the Division of Heme/Oncology and Deputy Director of the Simmons Cancer Center (SCC), former Chair of ECOG's Thoracic Committee and currently PI of UTSW's main institution ECOG grant. Co-investigators include Dr. Hak Choy, Chair of UTSW's Department of Radiation Oncology, Vice Chair for Disease Sites in RTOG, and former Chair of RTOG's Thoracic Committee; Dr. David Miller, member of the GOG Board of Directors and Chair of the Uterine Corpus Committee; Dr. Marilyn Leitch, member of the Executive Committee of ACOSOG, and Dr. Phil Evans, immediate past president of the American Cancer Society, who was one of the founding members of the ACRIN Breast committee, and served as the principal investigator at UTSW for ACRIN sponsored trials. In 2012, UTSW enrolled 105 patients on adult co-operative group trials. Since 2006, UTSW faculty have investigated or co-investigated 96 co-operative group publications and 85 abstracts, and have chaired, co-chaired, or served as cooperative committee chair on 34 cooperative group trials. UTSW is also a site for the NCI Centers Quantitative imaging Excellence. UTSW is the only academic medical center and medical school in the Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) Metroplex, the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country, and is the only NCI designated Cancer Center in north Texas. UTSW also has a strong clinical and transitional research program and drug discovery program; a SPORE in lung cancer; an Advanced Imaging Research Center; and has access to a diverse ethnic and racial population. In the DFW Metroplex, roughly 10.3% of the populations with a cancer diagnosis are Hispanic, and 14.1% are African American; in 2012, 29.6% of SCC patients going on co-operative group clinical studies were of Hispanic ethnicity, and 13.6% were of African American ancestry.
The specific aims of the UTSW UIO are to contribute to and promote: (1) The NCTN by enrolling patients with diverse ethnic and racial background on therapeutic and non-therapeutic trials; (2) The scientific direction of the NCTN by bringing the basic, translational, and imaging research conducted at UTSW into hypothesis driven clinical trials. (3) Multidisciplinary efforts and collaboration across multiple disciplinesand multiple cooperative groups; (4) Service in leadership roles by chairing and co-chairing clinical trials and committees, and by participating in NCI activities and initiatives; and (5) The career development of junior faculty.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center brings to the NCTN a history of leadership in multiple cooperative groups and excellent accrual to cooperative group trials, Including ethnic and racial minorities. Other strengths include our innovative basic research and drug discovery which can be translated to clinic research, an Advanced imaging Center, and our unique position as the only NCI designated Cancer Center and academic medical center in the fourth largest metropolitan area in the country.
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