Patients and Survivors

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Patients and Survivors Program (PS) has 23 core members distributed across two themes. Members have appointments in four schools and eleven departments. During the current funding year, cancer-related funding for this program totaled $12M in total costs. Of this amount, peer-reviewed funding totaled $7.8M in total costs, including $3.5M from the NCI. As with other programs, the JCCC fosters many interactive activities and shared resources that support investigators in PS. During the current grant cycle, funds from the JCCC in the form of CCSG developmental funds, institutional support and philanthropic gifts to PS total $3,475,196. These funds supported seed grants, program leadership support, funding for special workshops and trainees. Sixteen PS members were recipients of JCCC support. PS members published 507 peer reviewed papers during the recent five-year renewal period, with 171 publications (34%) appearing in highimpact journals. The PS is highly interactive with 112 (22%) of its 507publications reflecting intraprogrammatic efforts and 58 (11%) reporting inter-programmatic collaborations. Accruals to therapeutic trials totaled 32, prevention trials 116, supportive care 1,751, epidemiologic/obs/outcome 16,921, ancillary/companion 185, and correlative 1,247 for a total of 20,252 subjects. PS has as its major goal the reduction in avoidable morbidity and mortality among patients with cancer and long-term survivors of cancer. The two main themes of the program are: 1) Quality-of-life/outcomes research, including late medical and psychosocial effects; and 2) Quality of cancer care, its measurement and evaluation. In both of these areas members focus on fundamental, investigator-initiated research, with extensive translational and transdisciplinary components. Program discoveries are being brought to the clinic and the community, as well as to broader testing arenas, such as Phase III clinical trials funded by the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). PS members are national and international leaders in survivorship, cancer outcomes assessment and quality of care research. Future program plans include continued translation and dissemination of research findings through implementation science and health policy engagement, as well as sustained emphasis on investigator-initiated research.