National Cancer Institute Awards $7.3 million to Kaiser Permanente for Cancer Clinical Trials, Patient Care Research

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Aug 01, 2014, 02:09 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., Aug. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A new five-year, $7.3 million award from the National Cancer Institute will allow Kaiser Permanente to expand its innovative cancer clinical trials program.

The award, part of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program, will help Kaiser Permanente focus on "enrolling patients in the NCI National Clinical Trials Network, testing cutting-edge therapies, and comparing existing cancer treatments on a patient-by-patient basis," said Lou Fehrenbacher, MD, director of Kaiser Permanente Northern California's Oncology Clinical Trials and the NCORP program director at Kaiser Permanente.

The grant will contribute to the clinical trial programs in Kaiser Permanente's Northern California, Southern California, Northwest, Colorado and Hawaii regions, and will allow Kaiser Permanente cancer care teams to offer a broad menu of clinical trials.

The new funding will also allow Kaiser Permanente to expand its focus on research into cancer care delivery. This includes:

Evaluating alternative treatment delivery systems
Examining disease prevention
Exploring pain and symptom management
Investigating disparities in cancer outcomes and how to eliminate them

"As an integrated health care delivery system with a comprehensive electronic health record, Kaiser Permanente will use this new grant to reinforce and strengthen its clinical trials platform, which will ensure our patients receive the best evidence-based cancer care possible," said Karen Emmons, vice president for research and director of the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute.

"Our Kaiser Permanente research program represents about one of every 40 cancer patients in the U.S.," said Jonathan Polikoff, MD, oncologist, director of the Kaiser Permanente Cancer Clinical Trials Access Program, Kaiser Permanente Southern California. "This enables us to be one of the more effective organizations preventing, diagnosing and treating all aspects of cancer, including experimental targeted therapy for advanced malignancies."

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve approximately 9.3 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to kp.org/share.

For more information, contact:
Vincent Staupe, [email protected], 415-318-4386

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SOURCE Kaiser Permanente