News Details
NCCN Qualifies Lehigh Valley Health Network for Affiliate Research Project
The NCCN Oncology Research Program has qualified Lehigh Valley Health Network, Lehigh Valley, PA, as the latest addition to its Affiliate Research Project. Lehigh Valley Health Network is a community-based affiliate of Moffitt Cancer Center—one of the 23 NCCN Member Institutions.
FORT WASHINGTON, PA – The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Affiliate Research Project (ARP), developed by the NCCN Oncology Research Program (ORP), has qualified Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), a member of the Moffitt Oncology Network (MON) of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, as a community-based research affiliate for the project. Moffitt Cancer Center is one of the 23 NCCN Member Institutions.
Located in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, LVHN is operating as an ARP site under the leadership of Suresh G. Nair, MD, Medical Director for Research and Principal Investigator, LVHN, and is the ninth community-based NCCN Member Institution affiliate to qualify for the NCCN ARP, increasing the scope of potential patients for the actively accruing ORP clinical trials. LVHN joins another Moffitt Cancer Center MON member, Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, as an approved research site for NCCN ORP-supported trials.
Lehigh Valley Health Network will have access to new and innovative cancer drugs for patients in collaboration with NCCN Member Institutions, and Principal Investigators of NCCN-funded studies will have access to LVHN as an NCCN-qualified community site.
"NCCN is excited to collaborate with Lehigh Valley Health Network as the newest research affiliate to be approved for the NCCN ARP," said Diane Paul, MS, RN, Vice President, Oncology Research Program, NCCN. "Patients and investigators alike will benefit as we continue to add highly qualified, community-based research sites to the project."
The mission of the NCCN ARP is to improve patient outcomes and advance medical science through clinical research conducted collaboratively among the 23 NCCN Member Institutions and their community-based affiliate members.
In addition to LVHN and Norton Cancer Institute, affiliates within the project include AtlantiCare Cancer Care Institute, South Jersey Healthcare, and Virtua, affiliates of Fox Chase Cancer Center; Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, MultiCare Health System, and Wenatchee Valley Medical Center, affiliates of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; and Medical Center of Central Georgia, affiliate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The NCCN ORP is organized to obtain funding to support scientifically meritorious research projects at NCCN Member Institutions. Policies and standards for the program were set by the NCCN Investigator Steering Committee, a group comprised of senior research physicians appointed by each NCCN Member Institution. To date, the NCCN ORP has received more than $41 million in research grants from pharmaceutical and biotech companies to support investigator-initiated trials including, but not limited to, evaluation of innovative regimens, mechanism of action, and exploration of extended uses for specific agents.