How NCORP Is Bringing the Latest Cancer Care to the Gulf South Region 

Quality cancer prevention and care should be available to everyone. Patients and families deserve the latest treatment options to ensure the best possible chances of recovery.

This starts with convenient access to clinical trials. In 2014, the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) was established to ensure people across the country can participate in clinical trials no matter where they live, especially in underserved communities. With a network consisting of 7 research bases, 32 community sites, and 14 minority/underserved community sites and including over 1,000 affiliates across the country, the NCORP covers 44 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

The NCORP prioritizes:

• Cancer prevention
• Cancer screening
• Cancer care
• Symptom management and supportive care
• Surveillance (monitoring patients to only deliver treatments that come with side effects when necessary)
• Quality of life related to health

In partnership with the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center, the Gulf South NCORP was established in Louisiana through the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network, which benefits patient care and cancer research in the Gulf South region.

Why Was the NCORP Established?

Cancer can affect anyone, no matter who they are or where they live. However, certain populations are more likely to be affected by cancer due to several factors, such as race, geographical location, income, health insurance, and education level.

Cancer disparities exist in how likely people are to be diagnosed with cancer, how long they survive cancer, what kinds of complications they experience, and other cancer-related data.

The NCORP integrates health disparities research throughout its network by reflecting the diversity across the nation within clinical trial research. In doing so, the research supports all people and reduces cancer disparities for everyone.

To accomplish this, the NCORP focuses on providing care where people live. By establishing clinical trials within communities and involving healthcare providers that the community trusts, those who are more likely to be affected by cancer have better access to high-quality cancer prevention and treatment.

The NCORP network is the primary source of enrollment for National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer trials and for health-related quality of life trials embedded into National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) treatment trials. Health-related quality of life outcomes are incorporated into many treatment trials and aim to inform the primary endpoint, describe how patients will feel during treatment, and provide valuable data that can be used when patients and clinicians are discussing treatment options in the future.

What Is the Gulf South NCORP?

The Gulf South NCORP is a nationally recognized branch of the NCORP that is a partnership among:

• LSU Health New Orleans
• Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center
• Ochsner Health
• Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport
• Other healthcare provider organizations

Through the Gulf South NCORP, led by Dr. Augusto Ochoa, Deputy Director of the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center, and Eileen Mederos, Clinical Trials Network Manager, patients in the Gulf South region can participate in a variety of cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship clinical trials in addition to cancer care delivery studies. The rapid development of successful new treatments, such as targeted therapies and immunotherapies, have made adding clinical trials a standard part of planning during a cancer patient’s treatment and can help decrease the overall cancer mortality rate in our region.

The Gulf South NCORP provides care for all patients and has received awards from the NCI for its high accrual of diverse patient groups.

Physicians who join the Gulf South NCORP have access to hundreds of unique clinical trials listed in NCI’s NCTN. The NCTN consists of four research bases – Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, NRG Oncology, and SWOG – committed to developing clinical trials for adult patients and one research base dedicated to pediatric oncology, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). The Gulf South NCORP program is continuing to expand as other physicians and institutions have joined this important initiative.

While cancer care advancements are significant, clinical trials must be made available to everyone to truly make an impact. With 95% of cancer patients receiving care in community hospitals, it is critical that we have an inclusive Gulf South NCORP that helps provide access to cancer clinical trials in our region.

Bringing the Latest Cancer Care to the Gulf South Region

Despite advancements in cancer care, cancer disparities continue to affect populations across the country. The NCORP is committed to reducing these disparities, including in the Gulf South region, and advancing crucial cancer research to benefit all people.

By providing care within and for communities, underserved groups can access cancer prevention and treatment approaches that will improve their quality of life and, in many cases, save lives.