Montefiore Academic Communicty NCORP Program

The overall goals of the Montefiore Academic Community NCORP Program are to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of early-stage and advanced cancer by participating in NCORP trials as an Academic Community site and contributing scientifically and administratively to the NCORP research bases. This will be accomplished by leveraging the strengths of the Montefiore Health System (MHS), including Montefiore Medical Center (MMC), which brings strengths in integrated patient care and innovative health care delivery systems in an academic medical center serving a large population historically under-accrued in clinical trials, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein), which brings strengths in training and education, and in basic, translational, and clinical research through its NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center. The Montefiore -Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC) program also brings critical leadership/membership to the NCORP Research Bases, including ECOG-ACRIN, Alliance, and NRG, including leadership roles at the level of the scientific committee chair (or co-chair), and protocol chair (or co-chair). Our plans build upon our long-standing involvement in all aspects of cancer research as a main member of ECOG for 50 years and an NCI-designated cancer center for 53 years (having achieved now comprehensive status in 2023), and a strong history of accrual of under-accrued minorities to cancer treatment trials (about 65-80% of all patients). MMC serves the Bronx, an urban community of 1.47 million residents, of whom 89% belong to historically under-accrued populations and 29% live below the federal poverty level. In the prior funding period, we continued a strong track record of scientific contributions to the NCORP research bases, and following an anticipated dip during Covid years now have met and surpassed our accrual targets for the last two years with continued exceptionally strong participation of key under-accrued patient populations. In the next funding period, we will continue our strong investment in our portfolio of NCTN/NCORP clinical trials with a significant expansion of anticipated activities in the areas of cancer prevention and screening as a result of recent recruitment of key faculty/leadership. In addition, we plan to continue our robust investment in a range of NCORP cancer care delivery research (CCDR) and cancer therapeutic trials. The Montefiore Academic Community NCORP is led by senior faculty with complimentary experience in cancer therapeutics, cancer care delivery and research. Dr. Halmos will continue to serve as the contact PI and overall technical director, including the Cores and Programs, Dr. Rapkin will provide oversight of cancer control/prevention, and Dr. Ohri will provide oversight of therapeutic trials and will continue in his role as Associate Director for Symptom Science for the remainder of the current award period of the program. This steady leadership team is supported by additional faculty leading programs of cancer prevention and screening as well as robust administrative, regulatory and quality assurance team members.