MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center has expanded the range of promising new treatments available to patients by joining one of the largest clinical trials cooperative groups in the country. The Cancer Center recently was accepted as a member of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology – a newly formed cancer cooperative group funded by the National Cancer Institute.
“I am so excited about this opportunity to bring new treatments for the patients from our state and this region,” Jame Abraham, M.D., medical director of the Cancer Center, said. “This will increase our ability to treat some of the difficult diagnoses we handle on a daily basis in the Cancer Center through a new approach.”
“Our membership in the Alliance opens up a number of cutting-edge cancer trials for patients undergoing bone marrow transplants, and those battling leukemia, and head and neck and lung cancers,” Mehdi Hamadani, M.B.B.S., assistant professor in the Alexander B. Osborn Hematopoietic Malignancy and Transplantation Program at the Cancer Center, said.
The Alliance was formed in 2011 by the merger of three national cancer clinical research cooperative groups – the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, Cancer and Leukemia Group B, and North Central Cancer Treatment Group. By merging into a single integrated group, they can develop and conduct more efficient clinical research studies, helping to bring clinical trial results to patients more quickly.
“The Alliance is comprised of an elite group of cancer centers, and joining this cooperative gives our Cancer Center greater visibility,” Dr. Hamadani added.
WVU Healthcare and the Cancer Center are recognized nationally as clinical trials sites. In addition to the Alliance, they are also members of two other cooperative groups – the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. WVU Healthcare offers more than 50 clinical trials for cancer treatment.
For information on clinical trials available at the MBRCC, see www.hsc.wvu.edu/mbrcc/sip.
