MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The WVU Cancer Institute has joined the Gynecology Oncology Group (GOG) Foundation network to offer a larger portfolio of clinical trials to its patients.
The GOG Foundation, Inc. (GOG Foundation) is a nonprofit organization with the purpose of promoting excellence in the quality and integrity of clinical and basic scientific research in the field of gynecologic malignancies, including cancers that arise from the ovaries, uterus, cervix, vagina, and vulva.
The institutions and investigators that collaborate with the GOG Foundation network are essential contributors to advancements in treatment regimens, surgical procedures, quality of life analyses, and prevention knowledge. The results of GOG Foundation clinical trials have influenced the standard of care for numerous malignant gynecologic neoplasms.
“I am very excited that the GOG Foundation and GOG Partners have accepted the WVU Cancer Institute to their clinical research network,” Valerie Galvan Turner, M.D., WVU Cancer Institute gynecologic oncologist and gynecologic oncology director of clinical research, said. “This partnership has allowed us to expand our clinical trial portfolio, which translates to access to the most up-to-date, advanced research available for the treatment of gynecologic malignancies for the women of West Virginia and surrounding regions. These trials will only be open at limited sites across the United States making it even more important that we bring them closer to the patients who need them most.”
The WVU Cancer Institute recently opened two gynecologic cancer clinical trials through GOG Partners and is participating in six additional gynecologic trials through NRG Oncology.
“These are very exclusive trials, and they have a rigorous screening process for the sites they choose to open these trials,” Dr. Galvan Turner said. “We provide extensive documentation and site screening to the GOG Foundation to show that we have a population that is in need of the trial they are offering. We are very excited to have been chosen to open two of their trials and to be on the waitlist for a third.”
Clinical trials provide patients access to treatments that may sometimes include the standard of care treatment with additional investigational therapy, drugs that are known to work in new combinations that have not previously been tested, and/or new therapeutic agents that have shown effectiveness in early studies.
Participants in interventional clinical trials will receive therapy, meaning no groups in the trials go without treatment for their disease.
Patients who are considering an interventional clinical trial should talk to their doctors about how their treatment will be assigned if they choose to participate.
“Every patient should be offered the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial,” Galvan Turner said. “One of the reasons I was excited to come here was the ability to expand clinical trial offerings for the women of West Virginia. Now, not only do we have the standard of care, but we are going to be able to elevate the standard of care through our partnership with the GOG Foundation and our continued work with NRG Oncology.”
For more information on the WVU Cancer Institute, visit WVUMedicine.org/Cancer.