Shields Radiation Oncology Center Mansfield is now an RTOG Member Institution!

RTOG (Radiation Therapy Oncology Group) is part of the Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program.  The Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program, which is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is designed to promote and support clinical trials (research studies) of new cancer treatments, explore methods of cancer prevention and early detection, and study quality-of-life issues and rehabilitation during and after cancer treatment.  Cooperative groups include researchers, cancer centers, and community physicians throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.  They work with the NCI to identify important questions in cancer research and to design clinical trials to answer these questions.

There are approximately 40 active RTOG clinical trials at this time from which our physicians can choose to open at SROCM.  RTOG membership also permits access to the Clinical Trials Support Unit (CTSU) which presently offers over 60 active clinical trials from multiple Cooperative Groups.  The CTSU is another NCI sponsored program developed to help increase physician and patient access to NCI-sponsored clinical trials.

The physicians at SROCM will collaborate with the Medical Oncologists, Urologists, Surgeons, and various other specialists at Sturdy Memorial Hospital and Morton Hospital to determine which clinical trials they would like to see open and available to their patients.  These trials will then be presented to Sturdy Memorial Hospital Institutional Review Board (IRB)  and/or Morton Hospital IRB for approval.

We welcome and encourage any input from physicians, patients, family members, etc… If there is a trial you would like to see open or you would like more information regarding the trials currently available - please contact Kelly O’Neil, our center’s Clinical Research Coordinator, at 617-376-6400 or koneil@shcpo.shields.com.

revised 11/21/07