Clinical trials are research studies designed to find better ways to treat cancer and help cancer patients.
As you and your doctor consider your options for treatment, you may wish to consider participating in a clinical trial. The results of these trials help your doctor change the way he or she treats cancer to provide the best treatment possible. Clinical trials test many types of treatment such as new drugs, new combinations of treatments, new approaches to surgery or radiation therapy, or new methods such as vaccine or gene therapy.
Today, cancer research is no longer conducted exclusively at large university cancer centers or major metropolitan hospitals. Community-based oncology practices such as Minnesota Oncology play a critical role in the development of new treatment options for patients. Minnesota Oncology physicians believe clinical trials are an important component of cancer care and are crucial for improving cancer treatment. Our physicians review the results of these trials continually and change the way they treat your cancer based on these results.
Minnesota Oncology patients have many options when it comes to clinical trials through the US Oncology network as well as our parterships with the Metro-Minnesota Community Clinical Oncology Program and Allina Health.
About US Oncology Research
Supported by McKesson Specialty Health and the US Oncology Network, US Oncology Research draws from a network of experienced investigators and dedicated clinical staff who specialize in oncology clinical trials. US Oncology Research serves nearly 70 research sites and approximately 240 locations managing about 225 active trials at any given time. Physicians in the research network have enrolled more than 57,000 patients in nearly 1,300 trials since inception in 1992 and have played a role in 48 FDA-approved cancer therapies, nearly one-third of all cancer therapies approved by the FDA to date.
Metro-Minnesota Community Oncology Research Consortium (MMCORC)
The Metro-Minnesota Community Oncology Research Consortium (MMCORC) is a nonprofit research program sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and participating hospitals and clinics. This program provides people in our community access to the newest therapies available for cancer treatment, management of treatment side effects and disease symptoms, and cancer prevention.
The MMCORC consortium represents an established community program that began in 1979 through a NCI-funded Community Hospital Cancer Program (CHCP) Award. In 1983 we received one of the initial National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) grant awards and have been funded by NCORP grant funding since then.
Currently, the consortium represents 21 hospitals and clinics Minneapolis, Saint Paul and the surrounding suburbs as well as Stillwater, Hutchinson, Willmar, New Ulm and New Richmond. More than 160 physician investigators participate, representing medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, gynecologic oncology and pulmonology.