RTOG CCOP Goals and Objectives
The unique goals of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group’s (RTOG) Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) are to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality related to radiation therapy alone or in combination with multimodality therapy. Members work closely with the RTOG Health Services Research Outcomes Committee, the RTOG Translational Research Committee, the RTOG Advanced Technology Informatics Committee, the clinical trial quality assurance system of the RTOG and the RTOG’s Statistical Unit in CCOP clinical trials to inform best trial design through peer review and discussion. The RTOG CCOP also performs and reports audits of CCOP institutions in order to monitor the quality of their performance and data, thereby insuring that state-of-the-art treatment is provided to their communities, as well as develops processes and tools to improve CCOP recruitment and accrual.
Our research objectives include:
a. Assess the acute and long-term toxicities of RT and to implement intervention studies to ameliorate or prevent clinically significant toxicities and to inform survivorship;
b. To perform studies of quality of life (QoL) and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) specifically related to the acute and chronic toxicities of curative therapy in order to evaluate the efficacy of interventions and to inform the rationale for future symptom management trial design;
c. Identify and evaluate biomarkers (biologic or imaging) that can be useful in the early identification of patients at risk for the development of acute and long-term toxicities and as predictors of response to symptom management interventions;
d. Identify and evaluate radiation dose volume predictors of patients at risk for the development of acute and long-term toxicities;
e. Decrease the suffering of incurable patients through the implementation of palliative RT studies;
f. Focus resources on specific hypotheses-driven objectives related to four specific research themes which build on our current strengths and emerging interests:
i. Mucosal Protectants and Epithelial Injury
ii. Neurocognition
iii. Palliation and Quality of Life
iv. Late Effects and Survivorship