San Juan Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The San Juan MBCCOP was formed and funded by NIH in 1990. The program brings to the Island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, state of the art, NCI-sponsored, Cancer Prevention, Control and Treatment Clinical Research to a large, minority Hispanic population where around 40% are medically indigent (uninsured). The program accelerates the transfer of new knowledge to treat, control and prevent cancer in the community. It enhances quality of care by adapting results and guidelines of clinical research trials. It continuously identifies barriers and challenges to cancer control and treatment research It involves multidisciplinary specialists in cancer control and treatment. The program promotes clinical research for medical students, residents and fellows in oncology training in an effort to focus on evidence-based medical practices and clinical care in future generations. The island of P.R. is 100 miles by 35 miles and 1200 miles from US mainland. The last census of 2010 reveals there are 3.7 million inhabitants. The island cancer registry reports about 12,500 new cancer cases per year. There is an excess incidence of cancer as compared to US mainland of tobacco/alcohol related malignancy, specifically head and neck, esophageal to liver. Also an increase of mortality in cervical, uterine and gastric cancers. The SJMBCCOP is formally affiliated to NSABP, ECOG, MD Anderson, University of South Florida, Wake Forest University and CTSU. Our participation highlights have been in Breast, Prostate, and Colon Cancer Clinical Research, where we continue to focus, and currently have over 70 opened protocols. The program has expanded to include 3 hospitals; One University Cancer Center and 7 private oncology practices. The MBCCOP has a total 81 investigators from multidisciplinary specialties and13 clinical and research fellows in training. The program will continue to develop research affiliations with NCI-sponsored research bases, and will participate and contribute in cancer research that eventually promises to cure cancer and improve quality of life, especially in the underserved population.