MaineHealth cancer network awarded $5.1M for clinical trials
File Photo / Renee Cordes
MaineHealth, headquartered here in Portland, has been awarded a five-year, $12.8 million Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence grant by the National Institutes of Health.
MaineHealth said Wednesday it has been awarded a $5.1 million federal grant to fund clinical trials for cancer patients in Maine and New Hampshire.
The health care system said the six-year award, the largest clinical research grant ever made in the state by the National Cancer Institute, will establish the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network Lifespan Program. The program is designed to bring the latest research in cancer prevention, treatment and care delivery to underserved populations.
The funding comes from the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program, which is based on a recognition that patients and research benefit when care is offered to people where they live, not merely at major research institutions in large urban areas, according to a MaineHealth news release.
Some of the planned studies will focus on cancer control and prevention, with a goal of reducing the incidence, risk and mortality rates for cancer and improving survivors' quality of life. Other studies will aim to improve how care is delivered.
Scot Remick, Maine Medical Center’s chief of oncology and one of the three principal investigators of the Lifespan Program, referred to the grant as "a transformational award that will bring a wide variety of clinical trials to our rural communities.”
Through the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network, patients currently have access to clinical trials at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine General Medical Center, Southern Maine Health Care, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Waldo County General Hospital and Pen Bay Medical Center.
St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston and Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick are expected to begin enrolling cancer patients through the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network early next year.
The Lifespan Program will help extend the reach of clinical trials to Franklin Memorial Hospital, Lincoln Health and Memorial Hospital in North Conway, N.H., and increase the number of clinical trials available to patients at other locations within the network.
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