NCI Announces CanCORS Grants for 2001

National Cancer Institute
Friday, 19 October 2001

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded $5.1 million in first-year funding to seven grantees for research on measuring the quality of cancer care in the United States. This five-year project, titled "Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance Consortium" (CanCORS), will support prospective cohort studies on more than 10,000 patients with newly diagnosed lung or colorectal cancers. The project is designed to increase the knowledge of the relationship between cancer care practices in the general population and patient outcomes, including survival and quality of life. The project will also assess community practice patterns and disparities in care between population sub-groups. The seven grantees will receive a total of approximately $34 million over a five-year period.

The grants are funded through a cooperative agreement with the Applied Research Program in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Projects funded by the consortium will be designed to complement the NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and research conducted with other population-based cancer registries. CanCORS is a key component of the NCI's initiative on quality of cancer care research. For specific project objectives, please see the description at http://appliedresearch.cancer.gov/cancors.html.

Research Process

The grants allow for the formation of a new infrastructure that will support six research teams collecting information from large, population-based samples of cancer patients for both lung and colorectal cancer. The grantees will agree to collect common data elements and transmit information to a central statistical coordinating center. Participating institutions will collect core data elements describing the processes and outcomes of care for all enrolled patients through the use of medical record abstracts, surveys, and administrative data. Information on other potential factors such as smoking history, use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, weight, diet, or physical activity, may also be collected. Initial results for the five-year project will not be available for at least two to three years.

Additionally, the grantees will conduct 12 smaller "special" research projects designed to complement the core research study. These smaller studies will concentrate on specific questions and selected samples of patients.

For more information, or to contact National Cancer Institute, see their website at: www.cancer.gov