Howard Zaren, M.D., St. Joseph’s / Candler, Savannah, Georgia
The program goals for the NCCCP are:
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Reduce cancer healthcare disparities
NCCCP cancer centers are working to increase access to care, especially for medically underserved populations, many of which have unusually high rates of certain cancers. All NCCCP hospitals provide free cancer screening events in their communities. The NCCCP network is working to bring a greater number of underserved individuals into a system of high quality cancer care across the full cancer care continuum. -
Increase patient participation in clinical trials
The NCCCP aims to advance research into new cancer treatments by involving more patients in clinical trials, providing them the opportunity to benefit from the latest therapies before they are available to the general patient population. The NCCCP sites are building their capacities to offer earlier phase trials, which could reduce the need for patients to travel to larger academic centers to access these trials.
All patients diagnosed with cancer at NCCCP hospitals are assessed for the opportunity to participate in clinical trials, with a strong focus placed on reaching underserved populations, including minorities, the elderly, and others who are typically underrepresented in clinical trials.
- Improve quality of care at community hospitals
NCCCP cancer centers promote multidisciplinary cancer care that is patient centered, data driven, evidence-based, and delivered through coordinated teams of physicians and staff in a community setting. The NCCCP sites are increasing the use of nationally established guidelines for cancer treatment and are expanding the use of molecular testing and genetics counseling, among other initiatives. -
Enhance cancer survivorship and palliative care services at community hospitals
NCCCP centers are building cancer survivorship and palliative care services into standard treatment programs at community hospitals, including psychosocial and hospice initiatives. -
Expand use of electronic health records and connect to cancer research data networks
The NCCCP cancer centers are expanding the use of electronic health records to improve the quality of cancer care. The sites are adapting tools from the NCI’s cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG®) – a cancer research data network – to facilitate electronic data sharing and support cancer research initiatives. -
Promote high-quality biospecimen collection to support genomically-informed research
NCCCP sites are assessing how NCI guidelines for collection and storage of biospecimens can be adopted by community hospitals to improve the quality of biospecimens available for research. Following these guidelines, many NCCCP sites are collecting tissue samples from a broad spectrum of patients, with appropriate patient consent, to provide researchers the opportunity to study both normal and cancerous cells from a diverse patient population. Research at the cellular level is yielding advances in genomically-informed treatments (sometimes called personalized medicine).
