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Clinical Trial Highlights The National Cancer Institute (NCI) goal is to make progress against cancer across the full cancer continuum – from prevention through treatment and long-term survival. Oncologists in our community are working closely with the St. Joseph Cancer Center to offer their patients a chance to participate in clinical trials overseen by the National Cancer Institute. Local patients have been involved in research conducted by national study groups including Southwest Oncology Group, NCI’s Clinical Trials Support Unit, Gynecologic Oncology Group, National Surgical Breast and Bowel Project and the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. During the past year, 3% of our patients decided to enroll in a research study for their treatment. This percentage aligns with national statistics. The participants receive all their treatment and follow-up care in our community. Credentialing Requirements Prior to enrolling any patients on Radiation Therapy Group studies, the St. Joseph Cancer Center is required to complete a radiotherapy approval process to assure that appropriate technical and clinical components are available to comply with protocol requirements. We must demonstrate that our center has the necessary equipment, and staff who understand the applicable protocol and treatment planning and delivery techniques. Each radiotherapy technique required on a study must first be performed on a dry-run case. Our physicist, dosimetrist and radiation oncologists work together to complete a treatment plan. The data is then submitted digitally to the Image-Guided Therapy Center (ITC) for review. Once ITC has approved the plan, our site becomes credentialed for the technique, having fulfilled all the requirements. Although the credentialing process to support these clinical trials has become quite complicated, St. Joseph Cancer Center is dedicated to excellence in assuring our competency in radiotherapy delivery and the overall success of treatment. In 2007, the Cancer Center became credentialed to offer the following radiotherapy techniques: 1) Mammosite, for women who enroll on the breast cancer clinical trail comparing the standard treatment of whole breast irradiation verses partial breast irradiation and, 2) Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), for people who enroll on clinical trials when treating with IMRT utilizing our center’s new tomotherapy machine.
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Cancer Services |