Michigan Cancer Research Consortium NCORP

The mission of the Michigan Cancer Research Consortium (MCRC) is to improve cancer care in the communities it serves, through access to NCI trials. First funded in 1994, as a single hospital Community Clinical Oncology Program, MCRC is now comprised of 15 hospitals and many investigators from 47 practices in five states. MCRC’s membership is a mix of health systems characterized by one or more features critical to performing cancer clinical trials work: Most MCRC members collaborate with Academic Medical Centers. This means they have capabilities for challenging treatment trials and retain patients with rare disease in the community setting. Several MCRC health systems operate as an Integrated Network of Cancer Programs. The synergies, across these sites, support planning and implementation of Cancer Care Delivery and Cancer Control and Prevention Research and promote optimal clinical trial experience for patients and research staff. Two large MCRC health systems operate on the same instance of EPIC throughout multi-state regions. EMR integration enables both centralized screening approaches, for all trials, and non-treatment trial participant recruitment and management, housed at central locations. Taken together, the mature infrastructure of MCRC and member strengths mean it is ideally suited for meeting important aims of the NCI and NCORP. Our approach to these aims includes: 1) Serve our patients from all representative patient groups and geographical areas, 2) Leverage cancer service line and integrated EMR capabilities to efficiently screen and manage our patients on therapeutic trials, cancer care delivery research, and cancer control and prevention trials, 3) Demonstrate clinical research excellence and acumen that is truly unique for a community setting. MCRC will continue to advance and adapt the necessary strategies to enroll to the most innovative protocols involving early-phase research, precision oncology, radiopharmaceuticals, and novel drug combinations for a wide spectrum of solid and hematological malignancies, 4) Advance the field of oncology through: a) multifaceted collaborations with the NCI, Lead Protocol Organizations, and oncology societies and b) dissemination of research results through top-tier journal publications and community engagement efforts.