The Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) is a center for the evaluation of data produced by

clinical trials Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

funded by the

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

, as part of the National Clinical Trials Network "to provide integrated radiation oncology and diagnostic imaging quality control programs... thereby assuring high quality data for clinical trials designed to improve the clinical outcomes for cancer patients worldwide."

Centers

There are currently six centers: IROC Houston QA Center, at the

MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center and autonomous university of the University of Texas System in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the wo ...

IROC Ohio QA Center, at

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC) is a multidisciplinary academic medical center located in Columbus, Ohio, United States, on the main campus of Ohio State University. History The Ohio State Health System includes Univ ...

and James Comprehensive Cancer Center. IROC Rhode Island QA Center in Lincoln, Rhode Island, administered by the

University of Massachusetts Medical School The UMass Chan Medical School is a public medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is part of the University of Massachusetts system. It consists of three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biom ...

IROC Philadelphia (RT) QA Center, at the ACR Research center in Philadelphia, IROC Philadelphia (Imaging) QA Center, at the ACR Research center in Philadelphia, IROC St Louis QA Center at

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WashU Medicine) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis, located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine shares a ca ...

History

The history of the Rhode Island Center (previously known as QARC) goes back to the late 1970s when

Rhode Island Hospital Rhode Island Hospital is a private, not-for-profit hospital campus in the Upper South Providence neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the largest academic medical center in the region, affiliated with Brown University since 1959. As ...

was conducting RT QA reviews of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

-based protocols for the

CALGB Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB; former name: Acute Leukemia Group B, ALGB) is a cancer research cooperative group in the United States. CALGB research is focused on seven major disease areas: leukemia, lymphoma, breast cancer, lung cancer, ...

, which is one of the major NCI-sponsored cooperative groups. Other cooperative groups like the

Pediatric Oncology Group The Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) was a U.S. and Canadian clinical trial cooperative group created with the mission of studying childhood cancers. It was formed by the merger of the pediatric divisions of two other cooperative groups, the South ...

and the

Children's Cancer Study Group The Children's Oncology Group (COG), a clinical trials group supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to pediatric cancer research. The COG conducts a spectrum of clinical research ...

decided to use the center's quality control. QARC began to seek funding from the NCI in order to manage the large influx of data, and received its first grant in 1980."Funded Research Portfolio" - National Cancer Institute
/ref> Sixteen years later, in 1996, QARC switched its affiliation from

Brown Medical School The Warren Alpert Medical School (formerly known as Brown Medical School, previously known as Brown University School of Medicine) is the medical school of Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Originally established in 1811, it ...

to the

(UMMS). By late 2003, it moved from the

Roger Williams Medical Center The Roger Williams Medical Center (RWMC) is a university-affiliated teaching hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Roger Williams Medical Center has an affiliation with Boston University School of Medicine. The Roger Williams Medical Center (RWMC) ...

to offices in

Federal Hill, Providence, Rhode Island Federal Hill is a neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. It lies immediately west of the city's Downtown, Providence, Rhode Island, Downtown, across Interstate 95 in Rhode Island, Interstate 95. Since the late 19th century, Federal Hill has b ...

; in August 2010, it relocated to its current site in

Lincoln, Rhode Island Lincoln is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 22,529 at the 2020 census. Lincoln is located in northeastern Rhode Island, north of Providence. Lincoln is part of the Providence metropolitan statistica ...

Notes and references

External links

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caBIG
Cancer organizations based in the United States Medical imaging organizations Medical research institutes in the United States National Institutes of Health Radiation therapy {{US-org-stub