The University of Missouri/Ellis Fischel Cancer Center (UMC/EFCC) has been an active participant in the activities of Cancer and Leukemia Group B(CALGB) since 1969. During this period, over 2,100 patients have been entered on CALGB clinical trials. Our goals during the next funding period are to continue our participation by enrollment of patients on the CALGB protocols to participate in the development of new protocols and the analysis of those completed. The institutions involved include the UMC/EFCC and the adjacent Harry S. Truman Veteran's Memorial Hospital, which share a common faculty . We will also enter patients from the private practice of Hematology-Oncology Associates at Boone Hospital Center and Columbia Regional Hospital (both in Columbia, Missouri), the Missouri Baptist Cancer Center and St. Luke's Hospital (both in St. Louis, Missouri) and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Members of the UMC/EFCC and its affiliates contribute to the group's scientific committees, serve as study chairs, contribute patients, attend CALGB meetings, and serve on administrative committees. As an institution, we are one of the largest contributors to CALGB respiratory cancer and a significant contributor to breast cancer studies. We accrue approximately one acute leukemia patient per month and enter a small number of untreated lymphoma patients and patients with colon cancer. Two new affiliates have been added to increase accrual in all of these areas. The methodology involves the production of a protocol or treatment plan. The initial idea may come from an individual or derive from a meeting of one of the CALGB disease committees (breast, gastrointestinal , lung, leukemia, and lymphoma) or a modality committee (pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, radiotherapy, surgery, and psycho-oncology). The protocol is modified, if necessary, and approved by the participating Modality Committees and then by the Executive Committee of CALGB. The final protocol is then submitted to the National Cancer Institute for approval. The protocol is activated at each of the participating institutions (following approval by their respective Institutional Review Boards). Patients are then enrolled until accrual goals are met, at which time the protocol is closed. The results are tabulated, statistically analyzed, and subsequently published. Sequential studies build upon the results of completed clinical trials.
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