Massey Cancer Center - Cancer Center Support Grant

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Massey Cancer Center (MCC) at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) seeks the renewal of its National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG), an award it has continuously held since 1975. As a leading academic medical center within the Commonwealth of Virginia, the MCC serves a 66-locality catchment area spanning central, southern, and eastern Virginia. This region is home to more than four million residents and is characterized by communities with substantial racial, geographic, and socioeconomic variation that contributes to a higher overall cancer burden and significant health disparities than reported nationally. The MCC is home to an interdisciplinary cohort of 147 cancer investigators from six VCU Schools and Colleges. These investigators are organized into three, highly productive research programs – Cancer Biology, Developmental Therapeutics, and Cancer Prevention and Control. To provide these cancer scientists with access to the latest technologies and highest-quality methodologies, MCC requests CCSG support for six shared resources: Biostatistics, Flow Cytometry, Lipidomics and Metabolomics, Microscopy, Tissue and Data Acquisition and Analysis, and Transgenic/Knockout Mouse. As part of its overall organizational strategy, the MCC also provides its membership direct supportive services through an Office of Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination; Office of Community Outreach and Engagement; Office of Research Development within the MCC Administrative Core; and a centralized, full-service Clinical Trials Office (CTO). Of note, the MCC is one of 14 NCI Community Oncology Research Programs in the US charged to facilitate access to and implementation of clinical research throughout its catchment area in partnership with 11 community-based cancer practices. The MCC has invested $33.4M since its last competing renewal in 2016, in the strategic recruitment of a group of 38 cancer scientists to VCU. Other evidence of MCC’s success includes marked positive trajectories of growth – since 2016 a 32% increase in annual direct NCI research funding, 70% increase in the number of collaborative team science awards, and membership (6% to 12%). Further, MCC members reported their research discoveries and outcomes in 990 peer-reviewed publications with 43% reflecting inter- and/or intra-programmatic collaborations. After significant health system investments in a new electronic medical record system and a CTO restructuring, there has been a 51% growth in interventional trial accruals since 2019. Guided by the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan, MCC’s overarching focus for research, education, and community outreach and engagement efforts will be to reduce cancer health disparities and improve survivorship for all with priorities placed in developing innovative approaches to the prevention and treatment of lung, gastrointestinal, breast, and prostate cancers as well as two key behavioral factors, tobacco and obesity control.