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COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES LEAD TO BETTER CANCER CARE
 Connecting West Virginia cancer patients with promising new clinical therapies is
becoming easier, thanks to a Cancer Center initiative launched last year.
The Center began discussing the idea of a statewide clinical trials network with
community physicians, administrators and other healthcare providers this past
summer. Since then three hospitals – Wheeling Hospital, United Hospital Center in
Clarksburg and Charleston Area Medical Center – have joined WVU Hospitals in
the collaborative network.
Under the joint agreements, community physicians network with Cancer Center
doctors and researchers to enroll their patients in clinical trials. WVUH-East City Hospital, in
Martinsburg, is able to do that for cancer patients in the eastern panhandle. The
hospital became a clinical trials site in June 2007 through its affiliation with the
Morgantown campus.
“We are very excited to be involved in the clinical trials network,” said Sharon Hall,
president of the CAMC Health Education and Research Institute. “Working
collaboratively, we can assure study sponsors that we have a system in place to
increase enrollment in these trials and be more competitive in securing funding for
additional cancer research projects.”
“We see the network as a way to unite healthcare providers throughout West
Virginia to make sure cancer patients in our state have access to the most advanced
care,” said Linda Carte, director of Cancer Services at United Hospital Center.
“By joining the statewide network we will be able to offer more clinical trials at our
facility, and our patients won’t have to travel long distances to enroll in them,” said
Manish Monga, MD, a medical oncologist at Wheeling Hospital’s Schiffler Cancer
Center.
Excitement about the network has spread beyond the borders of West Virginia. A
physicians oncology group in Cumberland, Maryland, has expressed interest in the
network, creating the potential for a regional network
in the future.
Financial support from Susan G. Komen for the Cure
and the Benedum Foundation to launch the Bonnie’s
Bus digital mobile mammography program is also
helping to create and develop the statewide clinical
trials network. One of the objectives of the Komen
grant is to make clinical trials accessible to users of the
bus. “We are proud to be a part of building bridges to
communities,” said Rebecca Newhouse, president of
the board of directors for Komen’s West Virginia
affiliate. “It’s so rewarding to know that the
collaborative network is going to have an impact on
reducing cancer mortality in the state.”
The initial focus of the new statewide oncology trials
network is to expand the clinical trials being offered at
the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center through the
National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel project
(NSAPB) to statewide network members.
NSAPB is a clinical trials cooperative group that has
designed and conducted clinical trials in breast and
colorectal cancer for nearly 50 years. The group
recognizes WVU as an established NSAPB site.
MBRCC is planning a trip to the southern part of the
state to discuss collaborations with community
physicians in Bluefield, Princeton, and Beckley.
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