Dr. Sandler, Nemours NCORP Secure Five-Year, $4.65M National Cancer Institute Grant

Written by Vicky Funanage, PhD
Operational Vice President, Research

Congratulations to Principal Investigator, Eric Sandler, MD, and Associate Principal Investigator, E. Anders Kolb, MD, who secured a 5-year, $4.65-million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH in support of the Nemours NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). The primary goals of the Nemours NCORP are clinical trial accrual, cancer care delivery research (CCDR), and outstanding data management. These goals have been beautifully tied to Nemours’ commitment to quality state-of-the art medical care; informative, efficient research through enterprise-wide collaboration and programmatic development; and transformative child health care advocacy with contributions to the nation’s agenda.

The specific aims of the Nemours NCORP are 1) to accelerate the development of interventions to prevent and treat cancer by increasing accrual to trials capitalizing on electronic resources and improving best practices across the continuum of care; 2) to expand and maintain an infrastructure supportive of highly productive and efficient CCDR pursuits; and 3) to foster quality care in the community through dissemination, discussion, and adoption of trial results through physician, family, and community education. Anne Kazak, PhD, Co-Director of the Nemours Center for Health Care Delivery Science, will serve as CCDR Associate Principal Investigator, and Christopher Frantz, MD, Jeffrey Schwartz, MD, Ramamoorthy Nagasubramanian, MD, and Scott Bradfield, MD, will serve as Site Lead Investigators for Wilmington, Pensacola, Orlando, and Jacksonville, respectively.

It is a tribute to this talented team that the Nemours NCORP is only the second pediatric NCORP in the country, and as the NIH review stated, “It is anticipated that the Nemours NCORP is poised to make substantive contributions to the NCI NCORP research agenda and can serve as a national model for other pediatric cancer healthcare systems or other children’s collaborative and cooperative research entities for years to come.” By ensuring that each child and young adolescent within the Nemours catchment areas has the opportunity to participate in national cancer prevention, control, and treatment trials as appropriate to his/her background and need, the Nemours NCORP delivers on our promise of treating each child as if they were our own.