Cooperative Group Members: Table courtesy of the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups

Member	Website
American College of Radiology Imaging Network	www.acrin.org
American College of Surgeons Oncology Group	www.acosog.org
Cancer and Leukemia Group B Foundation	www.calgb.org
Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Foundation	www.ecog.org
Gynecologic Oncology Group	www.gog.org
Mayo Foundation (North Central Cancer Treatment Group)	www.ncctg.mayo.edu
National Childhood Cancer Foundation (Children’s Oncology Group)	www.curesearch.org
National Surgical Adjuvant Breast & Bowel Project Foundation	www.nsabp.pitt.edu
Radiation Therapy Oncology Group	www.rtog.org
Southwestern Oncology Group	www.swog.org

 

For more information on the coalition go to: http://www.cancertrialshelp.org/

 

Cancer Centers

Sixty institutions have been designated as Comprehensive or Clinical Cancer Centers by the NCI. These centers conduct several hundred cancer clinical trials in any given year.

The unmodified term cancer center refers to a cancer center having a scientific agenda that is primarily focused on laboratory, population science, or clinical research, or some combination of these three components.

A Comprehensive Cancer Center has demonstrated reasonable depth and breadth of research activities in each of the three major areas listed above: (laboratory, clinical, and population-based research), with substantial transdisciplinary studies bridging these areas.

An NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center must also demonstrate professional and public education functions that disseminate clinical and public health advances into the community it serves.

 

Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP)

The CCOP network makes cancer clinical trials accessible to patients in smaller communities in 29 states, and includes community cancer specialists and primary care physicians.

A "CCOP" can be a group of hospitals and/or private practices that apply and receive a CCOP grant for their participation in NCI-sponsored clinical trials. There is significant variation in size of CCOPs. Some consist of one or two local hospitals, while others span organizations across several states.

The program is geared toward groups of organizations or private practices that can accrue at least 50 patients to treatment trials and 50 participants to cancer prevention and control trials annually. To qualify, potential CCOPs applicants should be able to implement existing NCI-sponsored cancer treatment and prevention and control clinical trials and must demonstrate an established record of accrual to such trials. University hospitals may be a component of a CCOP but cannot be the lead organization.

A Minority-Based CCOP (MB-CCOP) must meet the same criteria as the CCOP, but 40% of new patients/participants must come from minority populations. In recognition that many large populations of minority patients receive their medical care in academic hospitals; universities are eligible to apply for MB-CCOP.

Through the CCOP network's access to cured cancer patients, their families, and other individuals at increased risk for cancer, NCI has implemented several groundbreaking large cancer prevention trials:

• Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT)
  In 1998, this 13,000-woman trial showed a 49% reduction in invasive estrogenreceptor positive breast cancer from tamoxifen in women at increased risk of the disease. The trial led to the approval of tamoxifen by FDA as the first drug to reduce risk for developing cancer.
• Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT)
  In 2003, this 18,000-man trial that found that the drug finasteride reduces the risk of prostate cancer by 25 % in men at both low and high risk of the disease.
• Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR)
  In 1999, this 19,000-woman trial began to compare these drugs for the prevention of breast cancer. Results are now available here:

http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/2006/starresultsapr172006

• Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT)
  This 35,000-man prostate cancer prevention study began in 2001 and will determine if these two dietary supplements can protect against prostate cancer. These results may be found here:

  http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/qa/2008/selectqa

 

Pharmaceutical Industry

More than 100 pharmaceutical companies conduct cancer clinical trials, many involving early-phase research. These trials may be conducted independently or in collaboration with academia and/or a cooperative group. The company, whose drug is being tested, may fund trials that are conducted by academia and/or a cooperative group.