Dayton Clinical Oncology Program

The Dayton Clinical Oncology Program, hereafter referred to as “Dayton NCORP”, was incorporated in the State of Ohio in 1983 as a non-profit 501c3 corporation, and one of the original NCI Community Clinical Oncology Programs (CCOP). At that time, a consortium agreement was established between Dayton NCORP, the Dayton area adult hospitals, and Wright State University (WSU). A governing board was established and corporate bylaws were developed. Kettering Medical Center was the original grantee organization until 2001, when Dayton NCORP subcontracted with WSU for human resources, technical support, and financial oversight. Dayton NCORP contracts with a local accounting firm to conduct an annual external A-133 financial audit. In 2014, Dayton Clinical Oncology Program, was successfully awarded an NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Community Site five-year grant. Currently, the Dayton NCORP Board of Directors is led by Principal Investigator Howard M. Gross, M.D. as Chairperson, Dr. John Haluschak, Associate Principal Investigator and Vice Chairperson of the Board, and Mary Ontko, BSN, RN, OCN, President of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Other directors represent consortium hospital-members. The Board meets semi-annually to review budget reports and program activities. Fifty-four physicians, representing medical, surgical, gynecological oncology and radiation therapy, 20 hospital-based oncology research nurses, funded by our member hospitals, and 13 office staff, funded by the NCI grant, make up the research team. The office staff includes directors for quality, regulatory, and research projects, along with research coordinators, a pharmacy technician, an administrative specialist, and a research associate. Dayton NCORP is expanding; three hospitals in Youngstown, in northeast Ohio, have signed a Consortium Agreement and are undergoing the first steps of the process to join Dayton NCORP, and other sites have expressed interest in joining. Dayton NCORP is currently seeking continued funding through the six-grant year period running August 1, 2019 through July 31, 2025. Continued funding will allow the consortium to continue the Dayton NCORP mission To reduce cancer incidence and mortality through improved treatment and prevention by offering national state-of-the-art cancer research to the local communities.