Abstract
Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, GA, has been granted Comprehensive Cancer Center status, the NCI's highest designation. The center was particularly recognized for its population-based research and extensive clinical trials program.
Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, GA, has been granted Comprehensive Cancer Center status, the NCI's highest designation. It is one of 48 centers nationwide to achieve this distinction, which recognizes leadership in cancer research, education, and clinical care.
Winship became Georgia's first and, to date, only NCI-designated center in 2009. It has since added new faculty and enhanced its research programs, says executive director Walter Curran Jr., MD. Currently, Winship's four research programs—Cancer Cell Biology; Cancer Prevention and Control; Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics; and Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics—encompass 440 grants totaling $110 million in funding annually.
“To earn comprehensive status, we had to demonstrate that our research, education, and training impact the burden of cancer across the entire state of Georgia,” says Curran. “We've added eight new faculty members in the area of population science who have helped us make significant advances in cancer prevention and control.”
For example, Michelle Kegler, DrPH, MPH, director of the Emory Prevention Research Center, recruited a group of low-income adults who either smoked or lived with a smoker to participate in a randomized trial. They received three mailings and one coaching phone call on how to create smoke-free homes (Am J Public Health 2015;105:530–7). After 6 months, 40% of participants who received this intervention reported a full ban on smoking in the home, compared with 25% of control subjects.
The study's findings are helping to change secondhand-smoke policies and practices statewide, including a current effort to promote smoke-free apartment communities, says Kim Kerstann, PhD, Winship's senior director for cancer research administration. Kegler's intervention strategy has been implemented by 2-1-1 referral and information phone services in Georgia and several other states—including Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina—as well as several community organizations in California.
Winship has also pioneered new imaging techniques to better visualize tumors, says Curran. Studies led by radiologist Mark Goodman, PhD, resulted in the FDA approving fluciclovine (Axumin; Blue Earth Diagnostics), a radiolabeled synthetic analog of the amino acid leucine, in 2016 for PET imaging of prostate cancer.
Georgia Chen, PhD (center), a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics program at Winship Cancer Institute, talks with a colleague about their research.
As well, the NCI recognized Winship's efforts to expand patient access to experimental treatments. The Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics program operates a phase I clinical trials unit; in addition, Winship is a lead academic participating site for the NCI's National Clinical Trials Network, which focuses on phase II and III trials. In total, Winship researchers oversee about 250 clinical trials enrolling almost 800 patients annually, says Kerstann.
“A major contributing factor to our new designation is the depth and breadth of our clinical trials and translational research,” she says. “We are developing a network and formal mechanism to partner with community oncologists and expand clinical research into the community setting to help lessen the burden of cancer in our state.” –Janet Colwell
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