Evidence from a wide range of studies suggests that cancer patients diagnosed and treated in a setting of multi-specialty care and clinical research may live longer and have a better quality of life. The NCCCP pilot will offer more Americans access to research-based cancer care in their home communities by affiliating with the hospitals and clinics where most cancer patients already receive care. The pilot will make it easier to receive the latest, research-driven cancer screening, prevention, treatment, and palliative care services in a community setting. This is expected to improve treatment outcomes for more Americans.
During the three-year pilot phase, sites participating in the NCCCP will seek to bring the latest scientific advances and the highest level of innovative and integrated, multi-specialty care to a much larger population of cancer patients.
The program is intended to complement other NCI initiatives in seeking to achieve four major goals.
Expand clinical trials. -
The pace of research in understanding cancer has accelerated in recent years, raising the need for an accessible, national cohort of cancer patients available to participate in clinical trials. However, only 3 percent of adults with cancer, and an even lower rate among underserved urban and rural adults, do so. Often people are not involved in clinical trials because they are not aware they exist or trial may not be offered in their communities at their hospitals. Patients at the pilot sites will have access to the very latest cancer prevention and treatment advances through NCI-sponsored clinical trials. Making these trials available locally will draw more participants into trials and enable researchers to more rapidly develop and evaluate effective prevention and treatment strategies.
- Reduce cancer healthcare disparities.
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Studies suggest that equal access to quality care could dramatically reduce cancer deaths in the United States. A major focus of the NCCCP is on improving access to care among underserved populations with unusually high cancer rates. The pilot sites already actively reach out to these communities and will build upon these initiatives to bring more Americans into the system of care. Understanding and addressing cancer health disparities’ root causes is essential in NCI’s aim to lessen the burden of cancer for all.
- Collect, store, and share blood and tissue samples needed for research.
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With access to a broad cross-section of cancer patients and healthy patients participating in clinical trials, researchers will have greater opportunity to study both cancerous and normal cells provided through tissue and blood samples. These biospecimens are important because they allow researchers to study how cancer gets started, grows, and spreads (metastasizes) in some people and what prevents or halts this process in others. The pilot will assess how NCI’s guidelines for collecting and storing biospecimens can be applied nationwide to benefit the entire cancer research community.
- Explore the utility of a national database of electronic medical records.
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Expanding the information available on people who have been screened for cancer, are at high risk, are actively being treated, and are cancer survivors will greatly contribute to the knowledge and treatment of cancer. The pilot seeks to link this array of medical information, provided with patient consent with safeguards for confidentiality and security, through NCI’s electronic patient data repository: Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid™ (caBIG™). Enhancing community hospitals’ ability to create and use technology that works with caBIG™ could lead to a nationwide network of voluntarily-provided patient information on cancer that will provide enormous benefits to cancer researchers.
