- Children's Cancer Study Group
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The Children's Cancer Study Group (CCG) was a U.S. and Canadian clinical trial cooperative group created with the mission of studying childhood cancers. The CCG was originally known as Cancer and Leukemia Group A (CALGA) when it was associated with CALGB. In 2000, the CCG merged with several other pediatric cooperative groups to form the Children's Oncology Group (COG). This merger has seen its fair share of problems, especially with regard to integrating the various databases associated with each individual cooperative group. One such initiative to consolidate these databases involves caBIG or cancer BIG, which is guided and supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland.
Quality Assurance
The Children's Cancer Study Group has all of its protocol-driven cases reviewed at the Quality Assurance Review Center (QARC). As mandated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), every radiotherapy (RT) department participating in an CCG study submits their data to QARC for review. QARC is located in Lincoln, Rhode Island and reviews thousands of RT cases per year. The center was founded in 1977 as a not-for-profit health care organization designed to provide quality assurance for CALGB studies. Radiotherapy data from around one-thousand hospitals in both the United States and abroad is reviewed and archived at QARC.
Another center for quality assurance is the Radiological Physics Center (RPC) in Houston, Texas. The primary responsibility of the RPC is to assure the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and its cooperative groups like CCG that all participating institutions are following the basic guidelines regarding the physics-related aspects of radiotherapy. Established in 1968, the RPC has consistently received funding from the NCI in order to perform the aforementioned mission.
External links
Categories:- Cancer organizations
- Medical research institutes
- Pediatrics by country
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