South Texas Pediatric Minority Based CCOP

描述（由申请人提供）：南德克萨斯儿科少数族裔社区临床肿瘤学项目（STP-MB-CCOP）于1990年首次成立，目前已进入第17个资助年，是美国两个单独的儿科临床肿瘤学项目之一。STP-MB-CCOP的首席研究员传统上是圣安东尼奥德克萨斯大学健康科学中心（UTHSCSA）儿科血液学/肿瘤学部门的医生。STP-MB-CCOP作为一个由4家儿科机构组成的联盟运作：1)CHRISTUS Santa Rosa儿童医院（CSRCH）（德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥）；2)德里斯科尔儿童医院（德克萨斯州科珀斯克里斯蒂）；3)卫理公会儿童医院（德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥）和4)Wilford Hall医疗中心的美国陆军儿科肿瘤学项目（德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The South Texas Pediatric Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program (STP-MB-CCOP) was first formed in 1990, and is currently in its 17th year of funding and is one of two solely pediatric CCOPs in the United States. The Principal Investigator of the STP-MB-CCOP has traditionally been a physician in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). The STP-MB-CCOP operates as a consortium of 4 pediatric institutions: 1) CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children's Hospital (CSRCH) (San Antonio, TX); 2) Driscoll Children's Hospital (Corpus Christi, TX); 3) Methodist Children's Hospital (San Antonio, TX), and 4) the U.S. Army pediatric oncology program at Wilford Hall Medical Center (San Antonio, TX). The STP-MB-CCOP will continue to provide access to the highest standard of care (i.e. access to clinical trials) to the youth population of South Texas affected by cancer. In addition, it will continue to expand its wings in regards to population-based studies dealing with health and socio-economic issues specific to the population of South Texas. It will target the orphans of cancer care delivery (i.e. adolescents and young adults with cancer) in order to understand and abolish the barriers interfering with their access to clinical trials and survival. It will concentrate on bringing access to clinical trials to pediatric cancer patients residing in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. It will further assess the impact of obesity on the survival of ALL patients by addressing issues such as: 1) genetics of obesity; 2) possible impact of obesity on the development of ALL; 3) impact of obesity on liver function and metabolism of chemotherapy agents used to treat ALL; and 4) impact of obesity on later development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in ALL survivors. It will serve as a clinical base for genetic studies characterizing the pediatric cancer population in border population including genetic admixture and polymorphism studies in genes influencing both cancer risks and outcomes. It will be used to develop additional pilot studies that will address the uniqueness (biologic or socio-economic) of the youth population of South Texas affected by cancer.