Texas Pediatric NCORP

The Texas Pediatric MU NCORP is a consortium of five independent COG institutions serving South, West, and Central Texas, including the Upper Rio Grande. Its catchment area spans 113 counties and over 140,000 square miles, encompassing the entire Texas-Mexico border and parts of the New Mexico-Texas border. Population density varies widely—from 15.4 to 122.6 people per square mile—reflecting both rural and urban communities, with many patients facing long travel distances to access care. Border regions experience higher poverty, lower insurance coverage, limited English proficiency, and lower high school graduation rates compared to non-border areas. These wide population variabilities significantly impact the consistency in delivering complex cancer treatments. The overarching goals of the Texas Pediatric MU NCORP therefore are to: 1.0 Improve the outcome, both quantitative and qualitative, of children, adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer through enrollment on clinical trials (therapeutic, cancer control and biology) closer to home. This includes: 1) Promoting enrollment of pediatric cancer patients on increasingly complex clinical trials; 2) Increasing participation of AYAs in the NCTN and NCORP clinical trials through targeted activities; and 3) Supporting the participation of Spanish-speaking patients and families by providing culturally sensitive Spanish-translated study related materials. 2.0 Consolidate the Texas Pediatric MU NCORP’s involvement in the Cancer Care Delivery Research (CCDR) arena by: 1) Proposing new COG and cross-network CCDR studies in the arena of genetic counseling, health literacy pertaining to innovative treatment modalities and other proposals addressing cancer care delivery to Non-English speaking and/or medically underserved participants; 2) On-going participation in study committees and COG CCDR leadership; and 3) Leveraging the NCTN to maintain a cross-network portfolio of active studies that meet our population’s needs. 3.0 Maintain and retain a cadre of trained Clinical Research Associates (CRAs) to support participation of children and AYAs with cancer in the increasingly complex NCTN and NCORP clinical trials portfolio. This will involve promoting, supporting and engaging CRAs in the research base committees (COG and others) and collaborative projects with other NCORP institutions.