VCU Massey Cancer Center Minority/Underserved NCI Community Oncology Research Program

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center (Massey) will serve as the primary component site for an NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Community Site (UG1 award in partnership with nine collaborating community affiliate sites in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This proposal emphasizes the urban and rural populations available to VCU/Massey’s NCORP. This community-based NCORP, focused on increasing the availability of NCI clinical research trials to all populations, was initially funded in 1990 as a Community Clinical Oncology Program and has been continuously funded since. The VCU/Massey NCORP has affiliations with six Research Bases (Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, Children’s Oncology Group, ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, NRG Oncology, Wake Forest NCORP Research Base, and University of Rochester NCORP Research Base). This proposal focuses on the urban and rural populations available to VCU/Massey’s NCORP and on accruing significant numbers of participants in cancer control and prevention, treatment/imaging, and cancer care delivery clinical research studies. This application describes VCU/Massey’s NCORP collaborations with the Research Bases as well as the working relationships between the primary site’s investigators, research staff, support personnel, and the affiliate sites. Accordingly, the specific aims of this proposal are to: (1) Increase the overall enrollment to NCI-approved studies, with participation representative of the catchment area, with a strong focus on cancer control research (CCR), cancer prevention research (CPR), and cancer care delivery research (CCDR), in addition to cancer treatment research (CTR); (2) Collaborate with the NCORP Research Bases by (a) providing insight into clinical significance during concept development, (b) identifying care imbalances in local populations served by VCU Massey’s NCORP that could be studied, and (c) providing input on feasibility concept and protocol development; (3) Exceed the required annual minimum participation in CCDR protocols; (4) Participate in biospecimen collection for biobanks that serve as scientific resources for NCORP Research Bases; and (5) Participate in NCORP initiatives to document screening efforts for clinical trial enrollment and to address differences in cancer health outcomes. The proposed revision to extend the VCU/Massey NCORP award is relevant to NCI’s mission as it will continue to advance scientific knowledge and help all people live longer, healthier lives.