MINORITY-BASED COMMUNITY ONCOLOGY PROGRAM

The overall goals of the Montefiore-Einstein minority-based NCORP community site are to advance the diagnosis, prevention, and management of early and advanced cancer by participating in NCORP trials as a minority/underserved community site, and contributing scientifically and administratively to the NCORP research bases. This will be accomplished by leveraging the strengths of the Montefiore Health System (MHS), including Montefiore Medical Center (MMC), which brings strengths in integrated patient care and innovative health care delivery systems in an academic medical center serving a largely minority population, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Cancer Center (Einstein), which brings strength in training and education, and in baslc, translational, and clinical research through its NCI- designated cancer center. The MMC-Einstein program also brings critical leadership to the NCORP Research Bases, including ECOG-ACRIN, Alliance, and NRG, including leadership roles at the level of the group chair's office, scientific committee chair (or co-chair), and protocol chair (or co-chair). Our plans build upon our long-standing involvement in all aspects of cancer research as a main member of ECOG for 45 years and an NCI-designated cancer center for 48 years, and a strong history of minority accrual to cancer treatment trials (about 65%of all patients). MMC serves the Bronx, an urban community of 1.47 million residents, of whom 89% are minorities and 29% live below the federal poverty level. In the prior funding period we had a strong track record scientific contributions to the NCORP research bases, and met our accrual targets with exceptionally strong minority participation. In the next funding period, we will continue our strong leadership in cancer therapeutics (EA2165), expand the spectrum of our activities to include new programs in cancer imaging and screening (TMIST), cancer control/prevention (EAZ171), and cancer care delivery research (CCDR). The MMC-Einstein NCORP program is led by faculty with experience in cancer therapeutics and biomarker research (J. Sparano, MD), precision medicine and immunoncology (B. Halmos, MD), and CCDR and cancer prevention/control (B. Rapkin, PhD), and is supported by a cadre of other investigators with a broad range of expertise, some of whom benefited from NCI- funded K12 training program in clinical cancer research.