For more than 40 years, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has supported an infrastructure program to conduct clinical trials across the US. To enhance, facilitate, and expedite the process of early-phase drug development, the NCI implemented a comprehensive plan transforming the NCI-sponsored early-phase clinical trials program from a series of separate institutions and efforts to a new, consolidated, integrated program, referred to as the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN). The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center (formerly the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, hereafter referred to as ?HCC?) has been an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center since 1990, and has been involved in the NCI Early Drug Development Program since 1999. Our group was one of 12 academic centers to be selected as an ETCTN Lead Academic Organization (LAO) for the phase 1 component, and subsequently selected as one of 10 academic centers to integrate phase 2 clinical trial efforts, with responsibility for developing, leading, and accruing to ETCTN clinical trials for adult cancer patients. We now propose to be a member of the NCI ETCTN as the Pittsburgh Cancer Consortium (PCC) Lead Academic Organization in a consortium with the University of Florida Health Cancer Center and the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. The goal of the PCC is to create a unified, integrated clinical trials network that will allow for more seamless advancement and progress of novel experimental agents and/or combinations through early stages of drug development. The eventual goal of our program is to greatly facilitate and accelerate the delivery of new cancer therapies to the citizens of Pennsylvania, North-Central Florida, Bronx, NY, and their respective catchment areas.
The overarching goal of the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) is to enhance and facilitate the efficient and comprehensive conduct of early-phase clinical trials of NCI Investigation New Drug (IND) agents. The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center (HCC) proposes to be a member of the NCI ETCTN as the Pittsburgh Cancer Consortium (PCC) Lead Academic Organization in a consortium with the University of Florida Health Cancer Center (UFHCC) and the Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC). The mission of the PCC is to create a unified, integrated clinical trials network that will allow for more seamless advancement and progress of novel experimental agents and/or combinations through early stages of drug development. The long-term goal is to guide the development and conduct of early-phase clinical trials that may have the potential to change the standard of cancer care in the U.S. and worldwide.
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