As the parent institution for the NCORP grant, UNM Cancer Center will work closely with the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance, the statewide health care partnership for cancer clinical trials, according to a press release issued by UNM Cancer Center.
“We serve all New Mexicans and this NCORP grant will help us reach more of our rural and underserved population,” said Cheryl L. Willman, director and CEO of the cancer center.
The grant will provide funding for the staff to help patients and physicians participate in the clinical trials sponsored by the NCI, said Teresa Stewart, director of the Clinical Research Office at the UNM Cancer Center and the executive director of the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance.
“While UNM Cancer Center has been awarded the grant, we have to work with our community — and our community for this grant is the entire state of New Mexico. We are working collaboratively with a statewide not-for-profit cancer research network called the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance,” Stewart said.
New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance was created to remove barriers to opening cancer clinical trails and centralize all those functions so the hospitals can be more efficient in the state of New Mexico, she said.
UNM Cancer Center has involved 40-50 oncologists and 48-50 research staff from all over the state in the project, she said.
“Each year we have to enroll around 215 patients in our state on these specific clinical trials,” she said. “It will help because patients who are on a clinical trial are being offered if they want access to new drugs that they would not have access to otherwise as part of their treatment.”
When patients are on clinical trials not only do they have a physician and nurses who usually are providing them care but there is a research nurse or a research coordinator who has to make sure everything has been done according to the protocol, she said.
“We have to document that for the sponsor of the trial,” Stewart said. “There is an additional layer of support to make sure that patients, as well as the physician, are adhering to the protocol of what has to happen to treat that patient.”
At the end of the five years, UNM Cancer Center will apply for an additional five years of funding, she said.
“The good news for the patients in the rural parts of New Mexico is by having access to clinical trials, patients can stay in their community with their physicians and have access to the same clinical trials that are available in the large cities in our country,” Stewart said. “They can have that care and stay with their families, caregivers and support system.”
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Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @mianfawadshah.
