Regional Cancer Center Consortium Annual Meetings

描述(由申请者提供)：申请资金为“区域癌症中心联盟”的年会提供部分会议支持。下一届年会将于2006年2月16日至18日在匹兹堡大学医学中心的希尔曼癌症中心举行，随后的会议将轮流到其他成员机构举行。地区癌症中心联盟由来自宾夕法尼亚州、西弗吉尼亚州、俄亥俄州、纽约和密歇根州的综合和地区癌症中心的一组实验室和临床研究人员组成。我们以前的会议(过去8年每年举行一次)的成功，以及人们对继续和改进这一努力的热情，现在促使我们寻求NCI的支持。对未来五年的支持将极大地帮助我们开发和维持一个独特的、高质量的科学计划，重点是关于新疗法和转化性研究的重要、及时的主题。这样的计划将1)加强附近癌症中心之间的地区性临床和科学合作，2)为研究人员、临床医生、行业代表、学生/研究员和患者提供低成本、容易获得但最先进的教育机会。 NCI的资金将专门用于在未来几年的早期阶段加强会议规划，为研究生/医学生和实验室/临床研究员提供参加会议的机会(通过旅行奖励)，并帮助支付联盟区域外特邀专家的旅行费用和会议所使用的教育材料(笔记本/幻灯片讲义)的相关费用。对于该联合会的共同组织者来说，非常重要的是将代表人数不足的少数群体和妇女纳入会议发展的所有阶段，作为演讲者和共同组织者，并确保所有人，包括残疾人，都可以参加会议。 总之，NCI为这次年度会议提供的资金可以帮助为该国这一地区(包括服务不足的农村和城市社区)的癌症研究人员和护理提供者提供一个重要和独特的教育机会的长期稳定，并为NCI的“路线图”目标做出巨大贡献，即加强区域和综合癌症中心之间的合作。该联盟有很大的潜力帮助该地区癌症中心的成员在癌症治疗方面建立网络、加强合作并试验创新方法，特别是新的生物或免疫方法，这最终将有利于患者护理和新的临床试验的及时完成。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to provide partial meeting support for the annual meetings of the "Regional Cancer Center Consortium." The next annual meeting is being held Feb. 16-18th, 2006 at the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and subsequent meetings will rotate to other member Institutions. The Regional Cancer Center Consortium is composed of a group of laboratory and clinical investigators from Comprehensive and Regional Cancer Centers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York, and Michigan. The success of our prior meetings (held annually for the past 8 years) and the enthusiasm that has been generated for continuing and improving this effort has now prompted us to seek NCI support. Support for the next five years will greatly help us to develop and sustain a unique, high quality scientific program focused around important, timely themes concerning novel therapies and translational research. Such a program will 1) enhance regional clinical and scientific collaborations among near-by cancer centers and 2) provide a low cost and easily accessible, yet state-of- the-art educational opportunity for researchers, clinicians, industry representatives, students/ fellows and patients. NCI funding will be used specifically to augment meeting planning at an early stage for the next several years and to provide opportunities for graduate/medical students and laboratory/clinical fellows to attend the meeting (through travel awards) and to help defray the costs associated with travel of invited experts from outside the Consortium's region and with educational materials (notebooks/slide handouts) used for the meeting. Of great importance to the co-organizers of this Consortium is the inclusion of underrepresented minorities and women in all stages of meeting development, as speakers and as coorganizers, and making sure that the meetings are accessible to all persons, including those with disabilities. In summary, NCI funding for this annual meeting can help to provide for the long-term stability of an important and unique educational opportunity for both cancer researchers and care providers in this region of the country (which includes both underserved rural and urban communities) and contribute greatly toward the NCI's "Roadmap" goal of increased collaboration among regional and comprehensive cancer centers. This consortium has great potential for helping members of this region's cancer centers to network, increase collaborative efforts and pilot innovative approaches in the therapy of cancer, particularly new biological or immunological approaches, which will ultimately benefit patient care and the timely completion of new clinical trials.