Johns Hopkins has been an academic member institution of cooperative groups since the founding of this national oncology research in 1955. Over the decades, our faculty have provided strong clinical and laboratory scientific leadership, and administrative leadership to the cooperative groups. Our primary goal is to provide scientific leadership thus bringing innovative translational science developed in pre-clinical and early phase trials at Johns Hopkins via mechanisms such as the ETCTN to the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) for further development. Our faculty serve in leadership roles as study PIs and laboratory PIs, disease and modality committee chairs. The majority of our contributions and our longest association remains with ECOG-ACRIN and secondly with NRG.
The specific aims for our grant are 1) To provide scientific leadership within the NCTN groups and their disease-oriented committees. 2) To bring correlative translational research, novel imaging and radiation techniques, cell biology and molecular biology, into clinical trials for all stages of cancer. 3) To strengthen and enhance the coordinated, collaborative, and inclusive infrastructure established under one administrative program in order to support NCTN projects and promote participation in order NCI-supported projects, such as the ETCTN. 4) To address the challenges of supporting participation and accrual across disciplines, modalities, rare and diverse patient populations at all Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center locations. 5) To promote the involvement of junior faculty in all our aims for their advancement and contribution to the NCI cancer program. These goals will be accomplished through the mission of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. The Center has achieved excellence in translational research through program project, RO1, and SPORE grants. In addition, early clinical trials of new drugs are conducted under the NCI phase I contract (since 1982). Also the ETCTN grant allows the development of early phase trials that incorporate novel biomarkers of activity in order to advance new treatments in the field. Johns Hopkins investigators have focused on enhancing minority participation in clinical trials through grants as well as increasing overall clinical trial accrual throughout Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center sites.
Project Relevance Johns Hopkins has an extraordinary institutional commitment to the health of the public. Through close collaboration across multiple disciplines, the Cancer Center is focused on the entire spectrum of cancer care from risk identification, screening and prevention to early detection and cancer treatment. This patient centered care addresses the effects of cancer on financial stability, family and social interactions and quality of life, encompassing the overall impact of cancer on the lives of patients.
