Clinical Research Resource
The CDU/UCLA Cancer Center Partnership's Clinical Research Resource houses a full-time clinical coordinator, clinical trial and research resources such as directory of open clinical trials, and clinical partnership and networks developed by the CDU/UCLA Cancer Center Partnership to enable increased recruitment of underserved and minority populations into clinical research. Below, the resources and partners are briefly described:
- South LA Patient Navigation and Wellness Center (PNWC): This is the first navigation and wellness center in South Los Angeles and is housed within CDU and the adjoining MLK-MACC.
- UCLA - NCI/NRG Oncology: The NRG is a newly created national research organization formed to conduct oncologic clinical research for informing clinical decision making and healthcare policy. It brings together NCI's National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), and Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG). UCLA is a participant of NCI/NRG Oncology network and Dr. Robin Farias-Eisner, the U54 Cancer Center Partnership PI at UCLA, is also the new PI of NCI/NRG Oncology Grant at UCLA.
- Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center: The JCCC will continue to provide infrastructure and shared resources to support the Partnership . The JCCC provides numerous shared resources to facilitate JCCC clinician-researchers in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer JCCC will also continue to provide access to TORI (Translational Oncology Research International) investigations as opportunities for underrepresented patients to engage in high quality studies.
Medical and Community Clinical Centers
A. MLK-MACC: The Partnership has continued its relationship with the adjoining hospital at CDU - MLK-MACC. This relationship has allowed for engagement of underrepresented patients.
B. Long Beach Memorial Center Hospital: LBMC serves an ethnically diverse, low-income community and intakes over 1600 new cancer cases a year. LMBC was engaged into the Partnership through the CRR efforts to build a network with community oncologists.
C. Community Clinicians: In efforts to increase diverse enrollment in clinical research, community clinical sites have been engaged thus far from the 60 contacted.
Community Partners:
Healthy African-American Families II (HAAF)- a community based organization (CBO) is headed by CDU community faculty Ms. Loretta Jones. HAAF has a broad network of CBOs which service minority/underprivileged populations in LA. Interaction with HAAF, a key partner in the Community Outreach Program, will further secure the cross-partnership integration with Outreach activities. HAAF has been instrumental in partnering with the Cancer Center Partnership to organize knowledge exchange /dissemination conferences with combined over 1000 attendees (3 annual events).
CDU community liaisons and Patient Advocates - Rev. Joseph Waller and Ms. Martha Navarro have been recruited in to serve as community liaisons. One major recent achievements at CDU has been obtaining CME accreditation for the Weekly Cancer Journal Club in January 2013 and the liaisons have been key in engaging stakeholder participation. The Cancer Journal Club has long been a translational platform for cancer research in health disparities across the translational spectrum (basic, clinical, community) and every week brings together clinicians, researchers, community, and students.
For more information:
Director: Dr. Jay Vadgama (jayvadgama@cdrewu.edu)
Coordinator Dr. Tatevik Gevorgyan (tatevikgevorgyan@cdrewu.edu ).