LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Aug. 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute has been awarded a $4.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP). North Shore-LIJ was one of only 46 institutions nationwide to receive a total of 53 grants from this prestigious program – and the only healthcare provider on Long Island selected to participate.
NCORP is a national network of investigators, cancer care providers, academic institutions and other organizations that provide care in the community. The grants are designed to help improve outcomes for cancer prevention, cancer control and survivorship by funding clinical trials and cancer care delivery research to professionals in their own communities.
NCORP's $4.1 million, five-year grant to North Shore-LIJ replaces the current NCI Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) grants that NCI has been distributing for more than 30 years. North Shore-LIJ has been one of only 79 grant recipients since the inception of the CCOP grants. Currently operating out of the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute's Monter Cancer Center, the health system's CCOP has completed more than 350 NCI-sponsored and funded clinical cancer research trials involving nearly 9,000 participants.
"Over the past three decades, the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute has been working closely with the National Cancer Institute in advancing clinical care and research," said Daniel R. Budman, MD, co-executive director of the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute and chief of the Don Monti Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center. "This $4.1 million grant will allow us to continue to serve as a vital community resource for clinical research in cancer treatment."
Over the past 30 years, North Shore-LIJ's CCOP has evolved from a single institution with a handful of participating community members to 44 full-time and 18 community physicians at multiple sites across Long Island and New York City.
"This designation will initiate new research priorities with relevance to patients and their families," said Vincent Vinciguerra, MD, the principal investigator with the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute. "We plan to increase health services, behavioral and outcomes research. While therapeutic clinical trials will continue to be an important function, we will be increasingly shifting our focus toward cancer survivorship, cancer care delivery, patient-reported outcomes, patterns of care, cancer in the elderly and cancer prevention research."
About the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute
The North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute offers inpatient services at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH), LIJ Medical Center, Cohen Children's Medical Center, Glen Cove, Huntington, Southside, Lenox Hill, Staten Island University, Plainview, Forest Hills and Franklin hospitals. Outpatient services are available at the Monter Cancer Center in Lake Success, NY, LIJ Medical Center, Cohen Children's Medical Center, Glen Cove, Lenox Hill and Staten Island University hospitals, and physician offices throughout Queens, Long Island, Staten Island and Manhattan. With approximately 200 physicians, the Cancer Institute is comprised of 12 centers of excellence focused on: brain tumors, breast cancer, cancer genetics, gastrointestinal oncology, gynecologic oncology, head and neck oncology, hematologic oncology, lung cancer, melanoma and rare skin cancer, supportive oncology and pain management, pediatric hematology/oncology, and prostate and genitourinary cancer. The Cancer Institute and its physicians are involved in more than 175 cancer clinical trials and have accumulated 30 years of experience in National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical research.