BOSTON – Boston Medical Center (BMC), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have formalized a reciprocal agreement for joint clinical trials in cancer care. The agreement provides greater patient access to cancer clinical trials and increases research collaborations between the organizations.
With this new agreement, clinical trials may be led by principal investigators at Dana-Farber, MGH or BMC and will be open to patients at the hospitals.
Several trials, generally for patients with advanced cancer, have been opened with a number of patients participating.
“This clinical trial collaboration between Boston Medical Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital will facilitate the development of new cancer therapies across these outstanding academic medical centers,” said Matthew Kulke, MD, the Chief of Hematology/Oncology at BMC and Co-Director of the Boston University-BMC Cancer Center. “Importantly, the collaboration also helps cancer patients, who will be able to access a broad range of new, innovative cancer treatments in any of the three facilities.”
“Enrolling patients into clinical trials helps them get the latest treatments, and helps researchers develop new therapies faster,” said Eric P. Winer, MD, Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at Dana-Farber. “This important collaboration with Boston Medical Center and Mass General will provide great benefits to cancer patients in our region and will help the institutions to pursue their shared mission of providing access and advancing our understanding for how to treat and prevent cancer.”
“We are delighted to collaborate with Boston Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to provide all patients with cancer throughout Greater Boston access to the most promising novel treatments for cancer,” said Beverly Moy, MD, MPH, Mass General’s Director of Cancer Equity and Clinical Director of Breast Oncology. “This collaboration will lead to important developments of new evidence and therapies in this era of genomic and precision medicine in cancer care.”
This initiative reflects a systematic approach between top-ranked institutions to create an opportunity for the researchers and faculty to learn from one another, combine efforts in developing new and innovative studies, and to expand the enrollment of trials to reach a larger, more diverse population of cancer patients.
The institutions will collaborate to identify those trials that are appropriate to open together, as well as opportunities to jointly develop new studies.
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About Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a private, not-for-profit, 514-bed, academic medical center that is the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University School of Medicine. It is the largest and busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. BMC offers specialized care for complex health problems and is a leading research institution, receiving more than $166 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2019. It is the 13th largest funding recipient in the U.S. from the National Institutes of Health among independent hospitals. In 1997, BMC founded Boston Medical Center Health Plan, Inc., now one of the top ranked Medicaid MCOs in the country, as a non-profit managed care organization. Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine are partners in Boston HealthNet – 12 community health centers focused on providing exceptional health care to residents of Boston. For more information, please visit http://www.bmc.org.
About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world’s leading centers of cancer research and treatment. Dana-Farber’s mission is to reduce the burden of cancer through scientific inquiry, clinical care, education, community engagement, and advocacy. We provide the latest treatments in cancer for adults through Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and for children through Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the only hospital nationwide with a top 10 U.S. News & World Report Best Cancer Hospital ranking in both adult and pediatric care.
As a global leader in oncology, Dana-Farber is dedicated to a unique and equal balance between cancer research and care, translating the results of discovery into new treatments for patients locally and around the world, offering more than 1,100 clinical trials.
About Massachusetts General Hospital
Founded in 1811, Massachusetts General Hospital is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the third oldest hospital in the nation. Each year, the 1,100-bed academic medical center cares for more than 50,000 inpatients, records more than 1.5 million outpatient and emergency visits, and delivers more than 3,800 babies. Mass General is consistently ranked among the nation’s top hospitals on the US News & World Report list of “America’s Best Hospitals.” The MGH Research Institute conducts the country’s largest hospital-based scientific program, with annual research expenditures of more than $1 billion and comprising more than 8,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. For more information, please visit massgeneral.org