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The Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) was designed in 1983 to engage community physicians in NCI clinical trials and thus improve the incorporation of research results into practice.

The program was envisioned as a network that would participate in cancer treatment clinical trials and prepare to participate in and lead the way for innovative cancer prevention and control strategies. The Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program (MB-CCOP) was developed in 1990 as a means to provide a similar structure for clinical trials in institutions that serve largely minority and underserved communities.

The CCOP and MB-CCOP programs have successfully developed (PDF 997KB) local clinical research infrastructures, accrued significant numbers of cancer patients to cancer treatment clinical trials, and implemented major cancer prevention clinical trials. The MB-CCOP has the highest concentration of minority participants accrued onto NCI-sponsored clinical trials.

As the drive to translate genomic information into medical practice changes how scientific concepts are transformed into practical reality, designing and conducting cancer clinical trials grows ever more complicated. The need to collect tissue, analyze biomarkers and develop new trial designs are often difficult to explain to patients. The regulatory requirements for the ethical conduct of research, which protect clinical trial participants, can be daunting for experienced investigators and may overwhelm new community investigators.

The CCOP program is uniquely positioned to lead the translation of basic science into practice within the changing scientific landscape. It is ready to help validate basic science findings in the clinical setting; and to convey the first-hand knowledge of clinical work to the basic science venue, and the findings of basic science through clinical trials into the practice venue.

The CCOP Strategic Planning Process that resulted in a set of (PDF 2.08MB) adopted in November 2010, shed light on the need for new or revamped business and practice models that encompass changes to the practice of delivering cancer care, such as reduced reimbursement, evolving referral methods, implementing clinical trials in practice, and new funding models for clinical trials at NCI. Some of the initiatives identified to ensure success in the future include:

• Efforts to identify high-risk populations in which to study cancer prevention interventions;
• Evaluation of new and existing toxicities, and their pathophysiology to accelerate development of rational therapeutic or prevention approaches to symptom biology;
• Addressing the need for additional funding resources at community institutions as a result of complex clinical trials in the pipeline;
• Improving the network's overall efficiency and enhancing collaborative efforts and opportunities;
• Increasing the network's scientific contributions toward reducing health disparities in cancer care;
• Providing improved access to clinical trials in under-represented communities while dealing with the challenges of the evolving national health care system; and
• Addressing the new accrual challenges and opportunities facing community organizations that participate in NCI sponsored clinical trials.

With nearly 30 years of experience and collaboration among community physicians and academic investigators, the clinical trials network of CCOPs, MB-CCOPs and Research Bases will continue to conduct scientifically important and clinically meaningful clinical trials that result in better care for cancer patients and persons at risk for cancer.

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