It is proposed to form a New England Collaborative CCOP consisting of 7 institutions in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. These are the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston; the Choate-Symmes Health Services, Inc. in Woburn, Arlington, and Wilmington, Mass.; St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, Mass.; and Portsmouth Hospital, Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire; Frisbie Hospital in Rochester, New Hampshire; and Elliot Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire. Headquarters will be at the New England Deaconess Hospital which already has relationships with oncologists in the component organizations. Surgical and medical oncologists, radiation therapists and pathologists will participate in the program. Research bases will be the Vincent T. Lombardi Cancer Research Center's Mid-Atlantic Oncology Program and the National Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group. It is planned to establish a network making investigational treatments available to cancer patients in their own communities, to solidify and expand existing interhospital programs providing continuing education, and to allow the development of pilot studies which may be applicable for subsequent incorporation into national trials. The CCOP intends to strive for improved cancer care delivery in the community hospitals, to promote the transmittal of information to them and to promote the education not only of oncologists but also especially of non-specialize physicians who must deal with cancer in the community setting. The major thrust of the CCOP will be to provide the availability of new cancer treatments within the community. It is also foreseen that the program will create better opportunity for early cancer detection and will provide continuing improvement of the overall handling of the treatment of cancer patients. It is further anticipated that the CCOP organization in this geographical area will attract more community hospitals to become involved. The component hospitals include 2 major radiotherapy centers and collectively see more than 4000 new cancer patients annually. Two hundred patients will enter the New England Collaborative CCOP clinical trials.
