Clinical Research Program
The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center offers more cancer-related clinical trials than any other hospital in western North Carolina. Patients with virtually all types of cancer have the opportunity to participate in one of nearly 300 research studies either being conducted by oncologists from the Comprehensive Cancer Center or other leading cancer researchers around the country with whom Wake Forest collaborates. Most of the studies combine conventional treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, as well as novel molecular therapeutic approaches such as fusion toxins, targeted agents, and gene therapy, to name a few.
Our Cancer Center also utilizes integrative approaches with complementary and alternative medicines, including vitamin and nutritional therapies, in both cancer treatment and symptom management research. We firmly believe that “research cures cancer” and so do the 1000 or more of our patients per year who enroll on one or more of our cutting edge clinical trials originating from the Cancer Center or one of the national Cooperative Groups that we are a member of, including the following:
· American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG)
· Cancer and Acute Leukemia Group B (CALGB)
· Children’s Oncology Group (COG)
· Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG)
· National Adjuvant Surgical Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP)
· New Approaches to Brain Tumor Therapy (NABTT)
· Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)
In addition, the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) funded Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) Research Base. As one of only six Cancer Centers CCOP Research Bases in the country, this mechanism allows Wake Forest’s oncology clinical trials, designed and conducted by our oncologists, to be performed by community cancer centers all across the country. Presently, about 30 community centers in 10 states located the southeast, midwest, and southwest United States participate in cancer treatment and symptom management studies addressing important issues such as fatigue, weight loss, hot flashes, depression, cognitive function, and nutrition in cancers of the brain, breast, cervix, head and neck, lung, ovary, and prostate as well as soft tissue sarcomas and metastatic disease.
The Clinical Research Program of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (CCCWFU) is organized around three themes: Therapeutic Modulation, Bioanatomic Imaging, and Symptom Management. Therapeutic Modulation focuses on novel local, regional, and systemic treatments for cancer, a number of which have translated from laboratory research discoveries by Cancer Center basic scientists into the clinic. Bioanatomic Imaging is based on the use of anatomic, biologic, physiologic, and functional imaging of cancer and normal tissues for brain, breast, and prostate cancer as well as other solid tumors. Symptom Management studies utilize pharmacologic interventions to reduce the morbidity of cancer and its treatments with an emphasis on novel chemotherapeutic agents, targeted therapies, and botanical and natural compounds.