The Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) is composed of 41 institutions, 36 affiliate or consortial institutions and 7 CCOPs who have pooled their patient resources and scientific expertise to study the natural history of childhood cancer, to develop effective therapeutic regimens and to develop clinical trials of new therapeutic agents in children with cancer. There are 1,103 member investigators which includes pediatric oncologists, pathologists, surgeons, radiation therapists, radiologists, epidemiologists, neurologists, cytogeneticists, immunologists, pharmacologists, psychiatrists and statisticians. Reference laboratories for immunophenotyping, cytogenetics, DNA ploidy, molecular genetics, CML, and pathology are established at various member institutions to further basic changes in malignant cells and tumor growth and for quality control. Additionally pharmacology studies on phase I and the front line ALL studies are ongoing. The Group Chairman provides executive and scientific guidance and is responsible for creating an environment which will encourage the development of research protocols of the highest scientific merit. The Pediatric Oncology Group Operations Office provides the staff and serves as the central office for collection, processing, classification and distribution of information that is necessary for member investigators to participate in the research activities of the Group. This office prepares, edits, processes and distributes POG protocols from the initial concept to activation and provides amendments and revisions as necessary. The staff will also help the Disease Committee Chairman track manuscripts until their publication. It is responsible for arranging, conducting and supervising POG meetings and generating and distributing minutes of these. meetings. This office arranges and coordinates quality control and institutional audits. All of the activity of the Operations Office is coordinated with that of the Statistical Office. This application is requesting continued funding for the POG Operations Office and includes budgets for standing committees, major coordinators and reference laboratories.
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