The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NHI), has awarded the Cancer Research of Wisconsin and Northern Michigan (CROWN) Consortium a $5 million grant to provide patients in Wisconsin and Northern Michigan access to more leading-edge clinical trials over the next six years.
This grant is funded through the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP).
Established in 2018, the CROWN Consortium is a collaboration of three of Wisconsin’s largest cancer treatment organizations: HSHS St. Vincent Hospital Cancer Centers, Ascension Wisconsin and Aspirus, Inc. Together, these organizations offer an experienced research infrastructure with a team of highly-skilled investigators across many areas of clinical research, including hematology, medical and radiation oncology, palliative care and pediatric oncology.
“The National Cancer Institute, the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and training, funds grants that undergo a rigorous peer review process to ensure that the most promising research may be funded,” said Dr. Anthony Jaslowski, Principal Investigator of the CROWN Consortium and Green Bay Oncology physician at HSHS St. Vincent Hospital Cancer Centers. “To be named a recipient of NCI funding, and to be linked to this prestigious organization, can help enable members of the CROWN Consortium to conduct high-quality research and provide high-quality care to patients across Wisconsin and Northern Michigan.”
The CROWN Consortium serves nearly five million residents in 48 counties in Wisconsin and Northern Michigan, including many rural and medically-underserved populations. The NCORP grant will allow the CROWN Consortium to offer patients in these regions an expanded menu of leading-edge clinical trials that will focus on new cancer treatments; controlling cancer symptoms; cancer screenings; preventing and monitoring cancer; and evaluating how cancer care is delivered.
“Clinical trials help us to better understand new ways to treat, diagnose and prevent cancer,” said Dr. Jaslowski. “Standard cancer treatments that are used today around the world are a result of past clinical trials and research. This grant, which the CROWN Consortium is honored to receive, could help us all to advance care not only locally, but around the globe.”
In the past five years, the CROWN Consortium has enrolled a combined total of more than 2,000 patients in NCI-sponsored clinical trials. The CROWN Consortium is one of only 46 community cancer treatment programs across the U.S. to be awarded an NCORP grant in 2019.
“There is clearly a growing level of interest among community physicians to have access to NCI-sponsored clinical trials for their patients and individuals at risk of cancer,” said Worta McCaskill-Stevens, M.D., Director of NCORP. “We have a greater number and more varied types of health systems getting involved in clinical research through NCORP than ever before. Research in more community settings and systems reflects the complexity of cancer care delivery, allowing for the development of care delivery approaches that can be implemented within usual clinical workflow.”
Established in 2014, the NCORP network brings communities access to clinical trials in 44 states, including the states of Hawaii and Alaska, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and Guam. There are more than 9,000 doctors, nurses and research staff that take part in this lifesaving research.
