Clinical Research

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The Clinical Research Program of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (CCCWFU) is organized around three themes: Therapeutic Modulation, Bioanatomic Imaging, and Symptom Management. Therapeutic Modulation focuses on novel local, regional, and systemic treatments for cancer, a number of which have translated from laboratory research discoveries by Cancer Center basic scientists into the clinic. Bioanatomic Imaging is based on the use of anatomic, biologic, physiologic, and functional imaging of cancer and normal tissues for brain, breast, and prostate cancer as well as other solid tumors. Symptom Management studies utilize pharmacologic interventions to reduce the morbidity of cancer and its treatments with an emphasis on novel chemotherapeutic agents, targeted therapies, and botanical and natural compounds. The Clinical Research Program currently has 34 multidisciplinary members, from 17 Departments and Sections. Twenty-three Program members (68%) have NIH/NCI or equivalent funding. There has been a reduction in the number of Program members since 2001 as membership criteria have tightened. However, Program funding (direct costs) has more than tripled, from $1.53M to $5.59M. Program members published 386 articles of which 12.7% were inter-programmatic and 21.5% were intra-programmatic. The Cancer Center as a whole enters >1700 patients per year onto CCCWFU, Cooperative Group, and industry intervention and observational clinical trials; 92% of these are entered by CCCWFU investigators and 8% by CCCWFU affiliates, primarily through the CCCWFU Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) Research Base. The Research Base, one of only six cancer center research bases in the U.S., has grown to include 12 CCOPs and 5 non-CCOPs in 19 states across the U.S., resulting in a network of 92 community cancer centers and 3 academic medical centers (East Carolina University, Louisiana State University, and Wake Forest) performing CCCWFU investigator-initiated clinical trials. Accrual onto all CCCWFU Phase I, II, and III intervention trials has more than doubled since 2001 to about 600 per year at present. Institutional investment for clinical oncology and clinical imaging research to support the Clinical Research Program has been outstanding, with >$20 million spent on imaging equipment for the Center for Biomolecular Imaging, and >$75 million on a new multidisciplinary outpatient cancer center, which opened in May 2004. Areas of future multidisciplinary and/or interprogrammatic investigations within current clinical research themes include: 1) Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering in oncology; 2) Nanotechnology and molecular materials in oncology; and 3) Canine models of malignant gliomas (with the Virginia Tech School of Veterinary Medicine Center of Comparative Oncology).