Cancer treatment group extends primary member status to clinic

Friday, March 15, 2002

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 14, 2002 — The North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) has extended primary member status to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. The NCCTG is one of nine National Cancer Institute (NCI) Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups in the United States. Since 1987, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville has participated in the NCCTG as an affiliate of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The new status within the NCCTG is expected to benefit area cancer patients whether or not they are treated at Mayo Clinic.

The NCCTG includes about 24 primary member clinics throughout the United States and their affiliates, consisting of more than 800 physicians and approximately 500 allied-health professionals.

Primary members, located in 14 states and one Canadian province, have joined together to provide their patients with access to more than 50 clinical research studies for virtually all types of cancer. Among the NCCTG's goals are to improve survival and quality of life for cancer patients by conducting high-quality cancer treatment research studies and to provide cancer patients access to the highest quality of cancer care at a research setting in or near their home community.

Dr. Jan Buckner, group chair of the NCCTG, says Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville was granted primary membership status because of its record enrolling and following patients in NCCTG-sponsored clinical trials. "Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville has regularly exceeded expectations for patient enrollment and has a history of excellent data collection and patient follow up," he says.

Primary membership carries with it appropriate NCI funding to support the infrastructure necessary to conduct clinical trials. It also gives Mayo Clinic flexibility in selecting which NCCTG trials to open based on the unique needs of the area's patients. Mayo can also invite non-Mayo physicians who meet NCCTG criteria for affiliate investigators to enroll their own patients in these NCCTG trials. Mayo Clinic will oversee data collection and care of these patients, although they need not be treated there.

"Clinical trials are one of the best ways to provide excellence for patients," says Dr. Edith Perez, director of the Cancer Clinical Study Unit and Breast Cancer Program at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. "We must increase the number of patients who participate in well-designed clinical trials to advance the field of medicine, especially the field of oncology. We've made many advances, but still we have a long way to go. This is not only a goal of mine, but of the National Cancer Institute as well."

Clinical trials include screening, prevention, supportive care and treatment studies. Most clinical trials for cancer treatment are designed to compare the existing standard treatment with a promising new one. Patients receiving investigational treatments may benefit from drugs and therapy unavailable outside the trial. And they benefit from keen monitoring of their health by physicians conducting the clinical trial. An estimated

1.5 million Americans are diagnosed every year with cancer, yet fewer than 3 percent take advantage of clinical trials they may be eligible for.

In addition to participating in NCCTG clinical trials, Mayo's cancer specialists participate in other cooperative group trials and industry-sponsored trials, as well as conducting their own investigator-originated trials. In 2001 Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville had patients in 105 cancer clinical trials, or protocols. These trials included cancers of the breast, lung, gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, central nervous system, blood and skin. Of the 257 patients enrolled in these clinical trials last year, 54 of them were enrolled in a NCCTG protocol.

Media contact: Erik Kaldor 904-953-2299

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