American College of Surgeons Oncology Group
Encyclopedia
Clinical trial
Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...
cooperative group supported publicly by the National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
(NCI). Established during the 1990s, ACOSOG has a different mission when compared to other cooperative groups. For the most part, ACOSOG focuses on the effects of surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
on patients with malignant
Malignant
Malignancy is the tendency of a medical condition, especially tumors, to become progressively worse and to potentially result in death. Malignancy in cancers is characterized by anaplasia, invasiveness, and metastasis...
tumors. Other cooperative groups like COG
Children's Oncology Group
The Children’s Oncology Group , a National Cancer Institute supported clinical trials group, is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research...
, ECOG, and SWOG
SWOG
SWOG is a National Cancer Institute supported organization that conducts clinical trials in adult cancers....
, tend to emphasize the role of radiotherapy in patients with metastatic cancers. Nearly all age groups are considered in ACOSOG studies; however, middle-aged to senior adults tend to comprise the basis for most of the research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
conducted with ACOSOG protocols. Children who necessitate surgery for resection
Segmental resection
Segmental resection is a surgical procedure to remove part of an organ or gland. It may also be used to remove a tumor and normal tissue around it. In lung cancer surgery, segmental resection refers to removing a section of a lobe of the lung.- External links :* entry in the public domain NCI...
of malignant tumors typically fall under the auspices of COG. Currently, ACOSOG offices are located at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina
Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...
.
Quality Assurance
The American College of Surgeons Oncology Group has all of its protocol-driven cases reviewed at the Quality Assurance Review CenterQuality Assurance Review Center
The Quality Assurance Review Center is a research program within the University of Massachusetts Medical School that provides radiotherapy quality assurance , diagnostic imaging data management, and clinical research support...
(QARC). As mandated by the National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
(NCI), every radiotherapy (RT) department participating in an ACOSOG study submits their data to QARC for review. QARC is located in Lincoln, Rhode Island
Lincoln, Rhode Island
Lincoln is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 21,105 at the 2010 census. Lincoln is located in northeastern Rhode Island, north of Providence....
and reviews thousands of RT cases per year. The center was founded in 1977 as a not-for-profit health care organization designed to provide quality assurance for CALGB studies. Radiotherapy data from around one-thousand hospitals in both the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and abroad is reviewed and archived at QARC.
Another center for quality assurance is the Radiological Physics Center
Radiological Physics Center
-Mission statement:The mission of the Radiological Physics Center is to assure NCI and the Cooperative Groups that institutions participating in clinical trials deliver prescribed radiation doses that are clinically comparable and consistent....
(RPC) in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. The primary responsibility of the RPC is to assure the National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
(NCI) and its cooperative groups like ACOSOG that all participating institutions are following the basic guidelines regarding the physics-related aspects of radiotherapy. Established in 1968, the RPC has consistently received funding from the NCI in order to perform the aforementioned mission.