February 09, 2018
The University of Kansas Cancer Center was recently recognized as a “high-performing site” by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Under NCI’s High-Performing Site Initiative, the program recognizes institutions that enroll a large number of patients onto National Clinical Trials Network trials while demonstrating scientific leadership in the design and conduct of clinical trials. KU Cancer Center’s Westwood and Overland Park, Kan., locations were specifically recognized for high accrual.
“This recognition is a testament to our efforts in building and growing KU Cancer Center’s clinical trials infrastructure, and it reflects the hard work of our physicians, clinical coordinators, data and regulatory staff in accruals, quality data management and study conduct. In 2017, 141 patients participated in our NCTN therapeutic clinical trials at those two sites,” said Priyanka Sharma, M.D., a breast cancer medical oncologist and KU Cancer Center’s NCTN principal investigator.
At any given time, KU Cancer Center has about 150 open interventional treatment trials across all of its locations. Higher levels of patient enrollment require a sustained level of data management and administrative work over several years. As such, high performers receive a special grant to support the research staff required to manage this effort.
About the NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network
The cornerstone of NCI’s clinical trials program, the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) is comprised of organizations and clinicians that conduct large phase II and phase III clinical trials across the United States and Canada. These help establish new standards of care, set the stage for FDA approval of new therapies, test new approaches to radiation therapy and surgery and validate new biomarkers. NCTN provides an infrastructure for NCI-funded treatment, screening, and diagnosis trials at over 3,000 clinical trials sites.